Weak dollar puts squeeze on Italian segment

For those in the business of selling imported products, price has been a bigger focus as the dollar weakens against the euro.

Most retailers and importers said they aren't passing along the entire difference in the prices of their products, but rather are making some increases and absorbing the rest.

"The biggest challenge is controlling price," said Carl Jorgensen, owner of Purely Organic, an Italian import and distribution business in Fairfield, Iowa. "That has cut into our margin quite a bit," he said.

Garth Tallcott, grocery manager at Chapel Hill, N.C.-based A Southern Season, said to accommodate the fluctuation, he increased the price of Umbrian olive oil to $24 a bottle from $19. "We have a threshold," he said, "and don't want to go over $25 for oil."

He said having to deal with such price increases "makes us a little more conservative, a little less experimental" when selecting new products. In addition, he said, companies they work with have been asked to make price adjustments.

Still, Tallcott said, Euro-based products have seen about a 20 percent price increase from last year to this year. "But folks who corne into the store understand it for the most part," said Tallcott.

Gianluca Guglielmi executive chef at the 13-store A.G. Ferrari Food chain in California, concurred that vendors have been asked "to be more reasonable on price."

That way, he said, "we can trim our margins and maintain a pricepoint for our customers."

Copyright United Publications, Inc. Feb 2005
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