Sales of specialty food in the United States are forecast to grow nearly 60% to 250 billion dollars by 2022 as additional unique quality products become available on the market, said Chris Nemchek, Senior Vice President of the Specialty Food Association (SFA). We are really fortunate right now, because we are experiencing the greatest growth this industry has ever experienced. The specialty food industry is at 157 billion dollars in the United States, and it’s on its way up to about 250 billion dollars, and that’s happening over the next few years until 2022, Nemchek told Italianfood.net at the Winter Fancy Food Show 2018 in San Francisco. We have so many new innovative products coming into the markets, and many of them are coming from Italy, and the US buyer is very interested and able to buy specialty foods, said the top representative of the SFA, which organizes the Specialty Food Shows in San Francisco and New York. The retail disruption is offering new access to smaller manufacturers who can sell online when they cannot find an importer and distributor in the US, Nemchek added. He said Italy is well positioned to benefit from the booming specialty food industry as producers innovate while keeping products authentic.
Watch full interview here: