BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Argentine kosher products, found almost exclusively in markets in Jewish neighborhoods in Buenos Aires, could soon be on shelves across Latin and North America.
Argentine producers of kosher foods, certified by religious authorities as acceptable for Jewish consumption, are looking to break into international markets that demand assurances of hygiene and sanitary quality.
At the top of that wish list is the United States, the world’s largest kosher market.
“Kosher certification is a key to entry into the United States and there are more and more (Argentine) products that fulfil those regulations with hygiene and quality tests,” said Julia Lahitou, director of the food industry association Reunida.
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Kosher, which in Hebrew means “apt for the law,” bars pork as well as the mixing of meat and milk products. All food production must be overseen by Jewish authorities. Animals must be killed without undue suffering.
Jewish authorities estimate that Argentina’s 250,000 Jewish population, the largest in South America, buys $9 million in kosher products annually. Buenos Aires boasts the first kosher-certified McDonald’s outside of Israel, which shuns milk-based ice cream and cheeseburgers and is closed on the Jewish Sabbath. It now has 40,000 customers per month.
“Nationally (kosher food consumption) has grown as more Jews become interested in observing food regulations,” said rabbi Daniel Oppenheimer of the Israeli Religious, Educational, and Cultural Harmony Association.
He said increasing observance of kosher laws among Jewish communities has been a boon for the industry nationally.
But kosher exports from Argentina, while growing, total only $900,000, according to the orthodox group Jabad Lubavitch. Among these exports are meat, oil products, sweets, fish, cheese and fruit concentrates, all with the kosher certification.
Rabbi Gabriel Yabra of the Kosher Supervision Unit, which assures international compliance with kosher laws, said there are 250 Argentine companies certified to produce kosher food.
“But the market is expanding,” Yabra added.
Certified kosher
A desire to break into the demanding but lucrative U.S. market led economist Javier Gonzalez Fraga, former Central Bank chief and now head of the La Salamandra brand of dairy products, to certify his line of mozzarella cheese and caramel as kosher.
“All La Salamandra exports are kosher. This is important in getting into the United States because people ask for it,” he said.
Argentine producers also look to sell in neighboring countries like Uruguay, Paraguay and Chile, where kosher production is practically nonexistent.
Yanovksy Hermanos, which has sold the typical Jewish fare matzo since 1905, already exports to three Latin American countries.
The company, with only five employees, nets $460,000 annually, of which $46,000 comes from exports. Its owner, Quique Romero, said he recently sent samples to the U.S. in hopes of getting a foothold there.
Like others in the Argentine kosher industry, Romero hopes the matzo he sent — complete with copies of psalms in Hebrew and English and arriving in time for Passover on April 7 — will raise U.S. eyebrows and make Argentine kosher goods common fare among the American Jewish population.
