CHOCOLATE was clearly the front-runner, but wasabi, cheese, citrus flavors and beverages made of tea and fruit were not far behind last weekend at the 47th annual Summer Fancy Food Show, the nation's largest showcase of specialty foods.

Over three days, 2,300 exhibitors showed off both domestic and imported products to 24,000 people at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center in Manhattan. Retailers who were considering adding the new foods had to sample them on the spot, however, because only marketing material, not food, could be removed from the building.

Specialty foods represent $25 billion in annual sales, according to the National Association for the Specialty Food Trade. And the business is growing. "We're now projecting a steady 4 to 6 percent rise in sales every year for the next five years," said Ron Tanner, vice president for communications and education at the trade group, which sponsors the show. The group had 350 members 20 years ago; it has 2,100 now.

Retailers and producers attribute the increase in sales to increasingly sophisticated, quality-conscious consumers, concerned about food sources and drawn to organic and additive-free foods. Even in a sluggish economy, there is still power in the "treat factor" — the ability of shoppers to treat themselves to, say, a $16 pound of premium coffee or a $3 bag of four cookies made of natural ingredients. The strongest sales, he said, are on the West Coast and in New England and the Middle Atlantic states.

For owners of small businesses, participation in the show is a significant investment, but many said it was important, because it can bring the exposure that makes the difference between profit and loss. The cost of a booth is about $3,000, but lodging, transportation and shipping can raise the expense of participating for three days to $10,000 to $12,000, Mr. Tanner said.

Several producers said their business had increased 30 percent to 40 percent after an appearance at the show. Orders might not come on the spot, but they tend to trickle in for months afterward, exhibitors said.

"It's important to be here, no matter how established you are," said Trish Karter, who owns the Dancing Deer Baking Company in Boston. "It's a chance to really meet and talk to customers, to show them what's new, to hear what's doing well and what's not. Anybody can bake a great cookie; it's everything else that's the hard stuff."

The company, which started with a single type of molasses cookie, had $4 million in sales last year.

Ms. Karter, working at her booth at the Javits Center, listed some of the challenges that face a small company: "packaging, marketing, production, developing recipes, being flexible enough to fill retailers' demands — like creating a baking mix in four days — and just understanding a very complex retail market."

"Only the tough survive," she said.

IN 1994, Ms. Karter, who has an M.B.A., and her husband at the time, a business analyst, invested in a small wholesale Boston bakery. Shortly thereafter, they produced their first retail product, a small line of packaged cookies. They were soon contacted by a buyer for Williams-Sonoma, the national cookware shop and catalog retailer that was beginning to sell packaged food in its retail stores. Ms. Karter quickly applied "everything I learned in business school and then some" to pay invoices, add staff and still maintain quality.

For retailers, the show is a way to gain exposure to a wide range of products. "I consider this an extraordinary learning experience," said David Levine, owner of A Touch of Italy, a specialty-food shop in Fort Myers, Fla. Standing in front of a table filled with artisanal cheese from Italy, Mr. Levine said he was learning as fast as he was tasting, gathering "information that my customers really want to know, and expect to learn."

All retailers can turn into customers. But for the small specialty-food producers, attention from a big national retailers — like Williams-Sonoma or the Whole Foods Market, or from one of the smaller regional chains like Central Markets in Texas, Straub's in Missouri and Wegman's on the East Coast — is the equivalent of being a finalist on "American Idol."

If a big company or chain likes a product it sees, it will often suggest reformulations or even new ideas. In the case of Dancing Deer, Williams-Sonoma wanted a gingerbread mix, and fast. "In four days we created it from scratch, and although we didn't know it then, beat out a lot of competition," Ms. Karter said.

Nina Robertson, the owner of Good Wives Inc. in Lynn, Mass., said that getting orders from Central Markets and Straub's allowed her business, previously a food service company for institutions, to become a successful specialty-food company. In the food show's awards competition last week, she had a winner. Her Good Wives Seafood Thermidor Puff Pastries, which are frozen, handmade cocktail pastries, won in the snack food or hors d'oeuvre category.

Laura Logan, the owner of Austin Special Foods Company in Austin, Tex., said that just one of these star merchants can make a product line succeed. Ms. Logan, whose Chipotle Double Fudge Chunk Cookie was a winner last week in the cookie and cracker category, said that it was only two years ago that she "no longer had to call my brother for money" for her company, which she started eight years ago in her home.

But money is still tight; she had to accept the cookie award in absentia, she said, because she could not afford a booth at the show this year. "I was there last year and it was terrific," she said, "but I was subsidized by the State of Texas," which, like some other states, had a pavilion at the show.

RETAILERS said the selection this year was especially impressive, noting the cheeses from both the United States and Europe.

"Pretty amazing, huh?", said Ari Weinzweig, an owner of Zingerman's, a food store and mail-order retailer in Ann Arbor, Mich. Mr. Weinzweig, who travels extensively and imports many of his artisanal products directly, has come to the show since 1984. He said there had been big changes in packaging, which is less gimmicky than before, and in the variety and quality of the products.

"It used to take years for producers to catch up with a very small buying audience," he said. "Now, because of really smart consumers, and lots of them, the pace has gotten so quick it's about six months between great product and buying public."

Consumers are finding specialty foods at a much larger range of stores, said Mr. Tanner, of the specialty-food trade association. The products are now sold on Web sites and in gift stores, juice bars, coffee shops, department stores, discounters and household stores like Bed Bath & Beyond. Hardware stores are selling condiments with their barbecue grills. Even Victoria's Secret, he said, is selling specialty foods.

So what can consumers expect to find starting this fall in the specialty-foods category? The list may include wasabi and ginger, often together (two products, combining both ingredients, won food show awards) as well as rich, combined pure fruit juices; a multitude of bottled waters with "nutrients added"; and low-carbohydrate snacks like duck jerky. Shoppers may also see multitudes of new cookies, salsas, Asian condiments and organic products.

There will also be chocolate, in vast amounts and forms. On its way for the holiday season is a chocolate voodoo doll from the Chocoholics Divine Desserts Company in Stockton, Calif. The product is meant to be assigned a persona and then eaten, head first.

Copyright 2003
The New York Times