Marketing Potential of Fresh Food Products to Hispanic Consumers: Exploring a New Market Opportunity

Kentucky and other states have a large Hispanic population that has shown a proclivity for fresh food products. Current evidence shows that Hispanics prefer fresh vegetables and herbs and live animals as part of their usual diet. Kentucky's farmers selling products directly to Hispanics indicate that their customers pay a premium price for fresh food despite having access to grocery stores that sell similar food at a lower cost. Tllis project investigates selling food products to Hispanics using two avenues: direct sales from farms and sales from local butchers/processors. The direct sales option is in response to reports from Kentucky and other states of Hispanics buying small quantities of various food products from fanns at premium prices. Many Hispanics buy live animals and process them on their own; however, urbanites have difficulty in doing so. Such clientele are likely to buy freshly-processed meat sold by a local butcher/processor. Since Hispanics have traditional preference for goats and sheep, tllis project will investigate the potential of selling Kentucky-grown goat and sheep from local processors. Hence, tills project will network small-scale farms and butchers/processors to their local Hispanic community; representing a marketing breakthrough in small-scale agriculture in the United States.