Report: Latin Food Market to Hit $25B

The U.S. market for Hispanic foods is evolving and growing and it could be worth $25 billion by 2015, a study has found.

Packaged Facts, part of MarketResearch.com, said Tuesday that the foodservice market for Latin foods was worth $18 billion in 2005.

The fastest growing ethnic food category, Latin is second only to Asian, Packaged Facts said in a news release. And the general agreement among restaurant industry analysts is that growth in both Latin dining establishments and Latin menu items will escalate — with more than a little help from the growing buying power of Hispanics, which is expected to reach $1 trillion by 2010.

Packaged Facts’ insights are based on a study that it is selling for $3,000.

Latin-themed quick-service restaurants have been growing twice as fast as other quick-service restaurants overall. In non-commercial, onsite and institutional foodservice, 67 percent of operators now menu Latin foods, a trend that was barely visible five years ago.