The new ketchup

Salsa, of course. Cilantro is an ingredient in salsa and a driver in the growing sales of ethnic vegetables. The Packer's Susie Cable recently keyed me to this Business Week article about East Coast growers. An excerpt that cites Bill Sciarappa, a Rutgers agricultural extension agent:

Farmers are expanding their product line, using familiar growing techniques to transition from parsley to cilantro, standard Italian eggplant to Chinese eggplant, peas to edamame beans, Sciarappa said. He is part of a team at Rutgers University developing a comprehensive production and marketing plan for ethnic vegetables to help East Coast growers.

Rutgers is using Census data to help growers scope out markets for ethnic veggies, which can fetch triple the prices of standard fare.

Susie also gave me a heads up about the "Where's the fruit?" study by Strategic Alliance.
A sad fact is that many food manufacturers are trading on the appeal of fresh fruit.

So where is the fruit in yogurts, cereal, juices and other packaged products covered with pictures of glistening strawberries, juicy oranges and apple slices? In just 27 percent of the products, such as the dried apple pieces in Apple Cinnamon Cheerios. Another 6 percent of products consisted of 100 percent fruit juice, such as Juicy Juice and Capri Sun Fruit Waves.


Instead of buying "Fruit Loops," Mom, try some real fruit.