I have nothing but praise for KA's work in the Kashrut field. They do much good without the need to go right over the top.
Thus when I received the following email from Yankel Wajsbort today, I was a bit stunned. Exhorting consumers to call (harass?) food manufacturers is one thing. But asking them to use dodgy and ridiculous figures is a different ballgame altogether.
“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”
20,000 families! That would mean some 100,000 souls – or almost 100% of Australia’s Jewish population.
Yes, it would be wonderful if such was the case. But sadly, this is far from the truth, and I am surprised that Yankel isn’t aware of this.
Sure, everyone should join in the campaign to improve Kashrut in Australia and increase product availability, but please keep in mind “Mid’var sheker tirchak”.
Yankel is not at all suggesting consumers harass food companies, and to suggest so is hyperbole. He is simply pointing out, and correctly so, that food companies will respond to consumer demand for kosher products if they know that such a demand exists. The only way for them to know this is for the kosher consumer to make their voices heard.
ReplyDeleteTotally ridiculous to assert Yankel Wasjbort is encouraging people to harass food companies. Businesses respond to consumer demand, but only if they know what the consumer is demanding, therefore, it makes sense to let them know that consumers want kosher products. Hundreds of people complain to Kosher Australia that there are not enough kosher products without understanding that the kosher authority has no influence over companies marketing decisions, but the public does! Don't complain to Kosher Australia, instead ring the food companies and tell them what you would buy if they produced it.
ReplyDeleteI thought that was what Yankel was doing - getting us to make some noise. Not a bad idea at all and I don't think that the blogger was criticising him for this.
ReplyDeleteIt was the 20,000 families claim that he was concerned about.
Perhaps 20,00 families are not keeping strict kashrus to the exact letter of the law but, I believe to assert that 20,00 families are interested in having kosher products available in Australia is no exaggeration at all.
ReplyDeleteHas the blogger been to America lately? Practically every food outlet you go to you find a majority of food products have some sort of hechsher on them, so to say it is a trillion dollar business is not much of an exaggeration at all, regardless of the so-called experts' statistics you cite.
It seems to me that instead of nitpicking about non-essential facts and figures, this blog would be better served to actually refrain from creating petty squabbles and misinformation about kashrus. What is the blogger's intent? Certainly it does not seem that the blogger is working toward strengthening the mitzvah of kashrus in Australia but, rather intent on tearing it down.
Let's see if you'll post my comment
Against my better judgement, I'm forced to comment. Some points:
ReplyDeleteCouple of points:
The ZFA did a survey and found that 48% of Jews in Australia are preferentially Kosher (this means that given the option they would by Kosher food). If we have 130-140,000 Jews, this is around 70,000 which breaks back into around 20,000 families or near enough (average families are just under 4 people).
Mintel surveys of Kashrus in the US shows 25-30% of retail food products and 75% of industrial food products sold in the US annually are Kosher. Hence the $1trillion. I did not say that Kosher demand was $1tr, but Kosher trade is (at least $1tr). Anyone who’s shopped outside Heimishe shops in the US will know that more than 50% of products carry Kosher certification.
As this blogger seems determined to undermine efforts to promote Kashrus, it would not be unreasonable to assume that he may have a pecuniary interest in Kosher food NOT being produced here, otherwise, why the attack? Could he be a stooge for importers/retailers who would be more happy to have families spend a lot more only using US or Israel products so that they can line their own pockets or ‘protect their parnossoh’ or perhaps other financial incentives?
Yankel, I am not sure how many of us would rely on those ZFA figures and they certainly do not stack up. 20,000 "kosher preferring" families?
ReplyDeleteLet’s start with meat and poultry. Were do they buy their Kosher meat from?
To the best of my knowledge there are 5-6 kosher butchers in the entire continent. Thus your figure would give them each of them an average of nearly 3,500 customers. No doubt Solomon, Unfanger and Continental would be ecstatic were this the truth. And while a few supermarkets carry a few packaged kosher meat lines in some Melb and Sydney areas, this does nothing to help the above figures sound more accurate. The same questions can be asked about our Kosher bakeries – which despite attracting many non-Kosher and non-Jewish customers do not boast such numbers..
I also don’t know where you got the trillion dollar figure from. I checked Mintel’s website and they talk of $12.5 billion.
>>Mintel Press Release Kosher Foods - US - January 2009
Region: US FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Feb 2009
3 in 5 kosher food buyers purchase for food quality, not religion
Christians, Muslims, Jews and Atheists alike are helping fuel the robust market for kosher foods, according to a new report by market research firm Mintel
The market for kosher food is strong and growing in the US, reports Mintel. Sales of kosher foods* totaled $12.5 billion in 2008, a 64% increase since 2003. Furthermore, Mintel’s recent survey of 2,500 adults revealed that 13% say they intentionally purchase kosher foods.<<
I don’t know much about Mintel but they seem to be a serious player in the world of surveys. But they too obviously have an agenda to sell their survey results to kosher food producers - as their page shows, they charge nearly US$4000 for a copy of their report.. Which puts them in the same category as Mr Wajsbort – of being noge’a badaver.
ReplyDeleteKosher Foods - US - January 2009
The kosher food market in the United States includes both "ethnic kosher/traditional kosher" products such as matzoh and "mainstream kosher" products-processed foods that have received kosher certification, but are in no other way identified with a religious kosher market. Sales in the kosher market are primarily reliant on the latter. Many large CPG manufacturers have sought kosher certification for their products and some of the biggest selling foods in the U.S. marketplace are kosher foods (e.g. Lay's potato chips, Oreo cookies).
• Report Price: • £1995 • $3995 • €2995
But even they only claim the market to be 12.5 billion
YW said...
ReplyDelete As this blogger seems determined to undermine efforts to promote Kashrus,
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YW, the writer is allowed to point out your guzmas. Better he/she does it than the AJN or even worse some who complians to the ACCC or some other authoritu for false promotion etc
YW: it would not be unreasonable to assume that he may have a pecuniary interest in Kosher food NOT being produced here, otherwise, why the attack? Could he be a stooge for importers/retailers who would be more happy to have families spend a lot more only using US or Israel products so that they can line their own pockets or ‘protect their parnossoh’ or perhaps other financial incentives?
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You believe that? I don't think our kosher food importers are too worried by a few more local products. Their busienesses seem to be booming. What YW and teh other kashrus perople should be yelling about is the fact that the impoprters ahve hardly reduced their prices - despite out dollar going from 60c to over 90c.