SAY 'QUESO'

LYNNE MILLER

Cheese producers have no trouble selling Latinos on queso fresco and cotija. Now, marketers aim to sell Hispanic cheeses to a broader audience.

In recent years, production of "queso" has more than doubled in two of the top states, California and Wisconsin. California, the largest producer of Hispanic-style cheeses, produced 96.3 million pounds in 2005, compared to 45.9 million pounds in 1997, according to the California Department of Food and Agriculture. For each year from 2000 to 2005, Wisconsin has seen production jump 20%, according to the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board.

"The interesting thing I found out is only 39% to 40% of Hispanic cheese sales are through traditional grocery channels," said Marilyn Wilkinson, director of national product communications for WMMB, Madison. "The remainder of sales are through mass merchandisers, club stores and especially small specialty outlets" in Hispanic neighborhoods. "It shows tremendous opportunity for supermarkets."

Cheese manufacturers are driving growth, said Dale Ohman, marketing director for Angelo Caputo's Fresh Markets, Addison, Ill. Caputo's has been adding steadily to its selection of Hispanic cheeses. The stores now offer 15-20 SKUs under three brands. They're stocked in self-serve cases in the dairy departments at the retailer's four stores.

Caputo's serves a diverse clientele, including Hispanics, Anglos and other ethnic groups. Vendors conduct tastings in the stores at least twice a month, Ohman said.

"That's a great category," he said. "We do really well with it. The samplings have been very successful. For the most part, the cross-over business is growing tremendously. We get Polish people who will try quesadillas on a Saturday afternoon."

It's a similar story at Salisbury, N.C.-based Food Lion. The retailer sees a growing mix of shoppers buying Hispanic cheeses, said spokesman Jeff Lowrance. In the Baltimore-Washington market, the chain offers an expanded selection to appeal to local Salvadorans.

Hispanic cheeses definitely have crossover appeal, said Dan Donovan, spokesman for Pittsburgh-based Giant Eagle. The chain carries a dozen SKUs of Hispanic cheese in cheese shops within the stores.

"We are finding that as people become more acclimated with things such as food shows and the idea of experimenting, customers from all walks of life are buying Hispanic cheeses," he said.

The El Viajero brand of Mexican, South American and Central American cheeses represents the bulk of business for Eagan, Minn.-based Wisconsin Cheese Group. Growth of the Hispanic cheese line has far outpaced the company's traditional cheeses, said Liza Etienne, assistant marketing manager for WCG, which got started in the 19th century marketing Italian cheeses. WCG even sells queso to customers in Mexico. For retailers, the company developed point-of-sale materials and a bilingual demo guide that divides cheeses into three categories - melting, dry and fresh - with descriptions of the attributes of the various cheeses. Lately, WCG has been fielding more requests from retailers for in-store demonstrations.

"They want to tap into the power of the Hispanic market," she said. "Retailers are paying more attention to the food and consumer needs of Hispanics."

Chandler, Ariz.-based Bashas' offers just four SKUs of Hispanic cheese in the Bashas' stores, but 55 SKUs in the retailer's Food City stores, which cater to a large Hispanic clientele. The assortment includes a private-label line, Dos Ranchitos, and another line of soft, moist cheeses in modified atmosphere packages that keep the fresh cheeses from leaking. Shoppers can pick up their queso in the fresh meat department, deli department and a dedicated cheese case adjacent to the meat department.

"In the Hispanic [Food City] stores, it's the largest segment of the cheese category," said Tom Buttes, Bashas' category manager for cheese.

The retailer limits the Hispanic selection at the Bashas' stores because consumers are not that familiar with the cheeses, he said. But that could change.

"This particular cheese will gain speed [in the future]," he said. "You see more and more recipes using cotija and queso fresco. We're just getting the engine started."

There's no question Latinos are the top consumers of Hispanic cheeses. Yet many Anglos are getting a taste of the quesos of the world at restaurants, said Edgar Moreno, sales representative at Ole Mexican Foods, an Atlanta-based company that markets Mexican cheeses under the Ole, Verole and La Banderita brands.

"It's growing by the day, the Anglo people who are buying it," he said. "They want restaurant-style" cheeses.

To build sales, retailers should give the cheeses better exposure, preferably in separate Hispanic sections, he said.

Miami-based Webeco Foods sells Hispanic cheeses to food-service companies as well as Costco Wholesale, Wal-Mart Stores, Publix Super Markets and Winn-Dixie Stores, among others. The company, which also sells cheese under its Gayo Azul brand, plans to expand distribution into the Northeast, said Richard De La Torre, national sales manager for the importing and distribution company.

One of the company's top-selling imports is Manchego, a sheep's milk cheese from Spain. The specialty cheese retails in conventional stores for $12 to $14 a pound.

"We're selling over 30,000 pounds a month just to Costco," De La Torre said, adding the orders have increased this summer, normally a slow time.

By the Numbers

$103.3 million

Sales of specialty and imported Hispanic cheeses for the 52 weeks that ended May 25, 2002

$129 million

Sales of specialty and imported Hispanic cheeses for the 52 weeks that ended May 20, 2006

24.9% growth over 4 years

Source: ACNielsen