The remarkable diversity of food products on American supermarket shelves mirrors the diversity of ethnic groups that have immigrated to this country and introduced their cuisines to American society. Distinctively packaged ingredients for Chinese, Korean, Thai, Hispanic and Middle Eastern dishes have long been available to shoppers in regular grocery stores. Today on New American Voices we?ll focus on attempts to create a broader market in the Washington area for produce used in African cooking.
When Yao Afantchao, an immigrant from Togo, first started farming vegetables like hot scotch bonnet peppers, garden eggs, sorrel, amaranth and callalloo in his in-laws' garden in Maryland, the only customers for this produce were Africans living in the Washington area.
The challenge Mr. Afantchao faces is how to mass market produce that many Americans regard as exotic. For advice, he turned to the experts at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Mr. Afantchao also hired a marketing specialist, Bukky Babalola, to help him popularize his produce. Ms Babalola came to the United States from Nigeria to study marketing in college, and now specializes in trade between Africa and the United States, and in the marketing of African products here. She also operates a small store that stocks African foodstuffs.
Bukky Babalola now sells the vegetables Mr. Afantchao grows, as well as his special African smoked fish, in her market in the Washington suburbs. But she says that she is developing a brand name for these products so she can market them more easily to a wider circle of consumers.
The brand name that Bukky Babalola and Yao Afantchao have settled on is ?Oyingbo?, which means ?large gathering place?, and is the name of a well-known open-air market in Nigeria. The next step is to develop an attractive look for these products, bringing them up to standards required by the large American supermarkets.
Interest in Yao Afantchao?s African produce is growing as quickly as his crops, and has already reached beyond the African immigrant community. Ms Babalola points out that people from the Caribbean and Latin America use many of the same foods, but process them differently. She also sees a big potential market among African-Americans.
As the market expands, Yao Afantchao is ready to expand his farming operation and become the premier provider of African vegetables for Washington tables.