Jorge Piña Gasca de Mayab Kaab y Juan Carlos Cervera de Villa Vainilla
Jorge Piña Gasca from Mayab Kaab and Juan Carlos Cervera from Villa Vainilla in the Sabor Latino section of the Texas Restaurant Association Marketplace.
By Jorge Rennella and Ed Avis
If you’ve attended a major restaurant trade show, you’ve probably noticed pavilions organized by various “pro” organizations (ProMexico, ProEcuador and ProChile), as well as similar groups without “pro” in their names. These groups all have generally the same goal: To get their countries’ or regions’ products onto your menus.
“We help Ecuadoran companies export foodservice products like cocoa, chocolate, coffee, quinoa, tuna and sardines, palm hearts, and others,” explains Humboldt de La Torre, who manages the food product portfolio for ProEcuador’s Chicago office.
The items these organizations represent are often interesting, little-known goods that are worth exploring.
Pimienta Gourmet Yupanki—a new type of peppercorn from Procosan S.A. that was exhibited in the Ecuador pavilion at the National Restaurant Show in Chicago in May—is one example.
“This new variety of pepper has a mild taste that’s not as spicy as other varieties, but very pleasant to the palate, which makes it a pepper suitable for fine restaurants,” explains David Yupanki, one of the developers of Pimienta Gourmet Yupanki.
Another unique offering in the Ecuador pavilion: plantain chips from TropicMax, a company advised by ProEcuador. The chips come in a variety of flavors, including garlic, spicy, and lemon.
“Our plantain chips—they are called chifles in Ecuador—are certified vegetarian and non-GMO, have no gluten or cholesterol, zero saturated fat, and 30 percent less fat than regular potato chips,” says Enrique Villacreses, a company representative.
In the NRA’s Mexico pavilion, visitors could sample craft beer from Ivan Martinez’ Mexico Brewery Reforms in the Mexico pavilion at the NRA show. “The beer industry in Mexico was bought by big foreign companies, which motivated me to start this brewery to create craft beer made by Mexicans,” Martinez says.
And in the Sabor Latino section at the Texas Restaurant Association (TRA) Marketplace show in Dallas in June, XCAMBO Liquid Salt from Mexico was part of a group of products brought to the show by Secretaría de Fomento Económico, a governmental organization devoted to increasing exports of products from the Yucatan. XCAMBO comes in flavors such as tequila and vanilla.
Finding distribution is a challenge many companies represented by the Pro organizations face. The American foodservice distribution system is challenging for any company, let alone one not located here.
Of course, that’s one reason the companies exhibit.
“The NRA helped us make contacts, measure the level of acceptance and interest of the public and look for distributors,” Yupanki said. “In all, it was a great experience, thanks to ProEcuador.”
Ed Avis is the publisher of el Restaurante. Jorge Rennella writes and translates articles, and handles advertising sales to companies in Mexico and other Latin American countries.