Yankel Wajsbort: Kosher market in the US is worth almost $1 trillion !

Melbourne Kosher Consumer's Guest Post # 2:

Somehow I missed this in my earlier post.
Yankel Wajsbort also writes:

Set aside an hour once a month to contact companies via their websites or by phone. 
If they are not Kosher, ask them why they haven’t looked at Kosher certification – there are 20,000 Australian families who actively buy Kosher and the Kosher market in the US is worth almost $1 trillion.

A trillion! Where does he get his figures from?

We know that Americans are great exaggerators – but even the people who have the most to gain from pushing bloated figures eg, Menachem Lubinsky the person behind Lubicom Marketing (owners of Koshertoday.com and the industry’s main event – the annual Kosherfest), haven’t made such a ludicrous claim yet.

A simple search of the net reveals that in 2008 Lubinsky gave the figure as $12.5 billion and last year raised it to $200 billion - a gigantic increase. One would not be labelled an apikores if he didn't belive this.
But a trillion!? How and when did this happen? And what number can we expect in 2011?

The truth obviously is, that no one knows or has genuine numbers. Thus allowing all those who have a barrel to push to concoct and  number they feel - as indeed we see here.

Here are a couple of articles we found refering to Lubinsky's claims:

November 3rd, 2008  U.S.kosher market grows to $12.5b
An estimated 11.5 million Americans buy $12.5 billion of kosher foods, a new survey by LUBICOM Marketing Consulting shows.
http://www.shalomnewyork.com/kosher/us-kosher-market-grows-to-125-billion/

According to Menachem Lubinsky, co-producer and founder of Kosherfest, “Sales of kosher foods in the past year have increased by double-digits, significantly higher than the U.S. food market in general or for that matter other categories of specialty. Kosher has benefited from a constantly growing loyal base and the addition of many non-traditional consumers.” He credited the nation’s food retailers with having the “vision and wisdom to buy into a very dynamic and creative market.” The value of the kosher certified products market is over $200 billion, according to KosherToday, an industry newsletter.
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?s=kosherfest