Prices rise but variety grows

This we already know: The centuries-old holiday of Passover celebrates the freedom of an oppressed people. This we are beginning to get used to: In the Land of the Free, Passover has become the holiday of the free — yolk-free egg matzoh, glutten-free oat matzoh, sugar-free cookies, lactose- and coloring-free sorbet, and free Haggadot.

And not to mention the free items that several supermarkets offer if you spend a certain amount of money there. According to a study done in 2006 by Mintel, a research firm, the kosher food market enjoys more than $100 billion in sales a year.

Indeed, supermarket chains and manufacturers have responded to an increasing demand for kosher and kosher-for-Passover items, which has made the observance of the holiday much easier for thousands of American Jews.

The Elizabeth-based ShopRite, for example, carries kosher products certified by more than 15 rabbinical agencies and independent rabbis, and boasts that the kosher displays in several of its supermarkets are 30 feet long.

Today there are certainly demographic changes and a much younger consumer who wants everything that can be made kosher to be kosher for Passover, said Menachem Lubinsky, CEO of Lubicom, a marketing consulting firm in Brooklyn, in an e-mail interview.

As a result of that demand, he added, some 350 new items for Passover are entering the market this year, including wines, cookies, candies, and teas.

But health and gourmet items dominate the list, Lubinsky wrote in a recent issue of Kosher Today, an industry newsletter. The newest trend now is products that cater to the health conscious. Some big-name brands that dominated shelves in the 1990s are relics of the past, Lubinsky wrote in the newsletter.

The new items today are from Osem, Manischewitz, and Kedem, with many entries from smaller brands, he added. In his view, the large number of imports on the market now is due to the fact that consumers want something different, not as a result of a weak dollar.

Some of those imports are teas from South America, wines from Argentina to Spain and even the Democratic Republic of Georgia, canned tangerines from China, and matzot from Israel.

In an informal survey, this newspaper found that two of the most expensive wines on the market, Chateau Giraud Sauternes ’99 and Labet Corton Charlemagne, both from France, sell for $99 and $115, respectively. In contrast, for the Passover of 1955, Carmel introduced five wines. A bottle of Tokay, one of the five, sold for $2.19.

In 1973, one of the big news items for Passover was the introduction of Yago Sant’gria, from Spain. This year alone, Spain has introduced more than five Passover wines.

A local wine merchant noted a new kind of customer, someone who has become religious and wants wines as good as those he drank before.

Spending the holiday on the high seas in cruise liners, or domestic and overseas resorts, with lots of food, world-famous performers, spas, scholars, family activities, and religious services is a treat for affluent Jewish consumers.

Some getaways include San Juan, Puerto Rico; Costa Rica; Italy; Acapulco; Mexico; the Panama Canal; and Cartagena, Colombia. Domestic destinations include Miami, Arizona, Palm Springs, Calif., and Orlando, Fla. (Access to scholars is included, too.)

A week-long stay at a Palm Springs hotel for five, for example, can cost up to $11,000, not including air fare. By contrast, in 1955, it was considered a treat to attend "inspiring seders conducted by Cantor Eugene Mayer in the truly traditional manner" at Greenspan’s restaurant on Newark Avenue in Jersey City. Cost per person per seder: $5.50. And the facility was air-conditioned.

Despite the array of new products and the allure of tourism, there are traditionalists, like Anne Fleisher, of Old Tappan, who prefer to host a seder at home.

She said that years ago her family spent Passover in Hungary, but the feeling wasn’t the same.

This year she has invited 21 people to her seder, including her three children and six grandchildren.

"I want my children to remember a seder at home," she said.

For this meal she prefers to cook with fresh ingredients rather than packaged ones, and said that this year she is letting other guests bring food.

"My daughter is bringing gefilte fish," she said.

Another traditionalist is Muriel Kaplan, who grew up in the west Bronx and has lived in Teaneck "since 1952 or 1953."

For Passover, she recalled, her cousins used to go to the Lower East Side to bake their own shmura matzoh, but she didn’t eat it because it was always burned.

Contrasting today’s family life, especially around Passover, with what she remembers from her childhood, Kaplan said it was better then because close relatives lived close by.

"Today families are scattered all over and we have become wandering Jews again," she said. "One of my sons lives in Colorado and the other in Pennsylvania."

She said that despite the abundance of new kosher products in the supermarkets, she still doesn’t buy many of them. "I’m still in the dark ages in terms of food, and when it comes to Passover, I stick to the ways of my parents and grandparents."

Foods for Passover from overseas were nonexistent in her teenage years, except for some wine from Europe and items her uncle sent from then-Palestine, she recalled.

Kaplan, who is "past 65," said that the best conveniences of modern life for the holiday are the removable tops for her stove, the Cuisinart to grate potatoes, and the oven timer.

This year there will be a fifth question at the seder: Why is this Passover more expensive than in previous years?

One of the reasons is the high price of wheat. And here are other facts that can be discussed at the seder table: Wheat is sold in bushels, a bushel is 60 pounds, and its price went up from $3 to $7 to $18 in February.

"The reason for the increase in wheat products is a multitude of factors, stemming primarily from the availability of supplies, which has gone down globally," said Marcia Scheideman, president of the Foods Wheat Council, an industry-wide partnership based in Denver.

Other factors are last year’s floods in Kansas and Oklahoma, major wheat-growers, as well as higher fuel prices and an increase in consumption, she added. "We are eating more, so it’s a matter of supply and demand."

High demand and lower amounts stored worldwide also triggered increases in corn and rice prices, Scheideman said.

Another suggested question for the seder is: What happened to TamTams, the popular octagonal cracker made by Manischewitz?

According to published reports, equipment problems in the manufacturer’s plant in Newark delayed production of the cracker. Several telephone calls to David Rossi, Manischewitz’s spokesperson, seeking comment were not returned.

Asked if the absence of the cracker is the biggest story of this Passover, Lubinsky replied, "It appears to be, along with a shortage of [stick] margarine, but to me the biggest story is the significantly higher prices."

Stories about price-gouging are common during Passover, but it seems that the customer has nobody to complain to. Asked if the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs could handle complaints, Jeff Lamm, the agency’s spokesperson, said: "The division doesn’t set prices."

A 2-pound box of shmura matzoh, an Orthodox preference for the seder but preferred at many non-Orthodox homes as well, sells for between $14.99 and $22.99. A pound of gluten-free oat matzohs sells for $25.99. Some customers, like Diana Roitman of Clifton, don’t seem to mind the prices.

"I don’t have a budget [for Passover] and if needed, I cut expenses on other things, but not for the holiday," she said. "I spend whatever I have to."

"If children don’t have cereal during Passover, they have to realize that it is a special week," she added. "We lived without many products for many years. Why not do it like that?"

Her seder is traditional, she added, because her children, Elana and Daniel, don’t like to change what they grew up with.

Is Passover easier now than before? "There are more products available, such as mixes, if you don’t want to work, more hotels to go to, more frozen and more prepared foods and more caterers," said Arlene Mathes-Scharf, a kosher food specialist based in Sharon, Mass., who runs kashrut.com, self-described as "the premier kosher information source on the Internet."

In her opinion, the news of the season is the shortage of stick margarine, which this year is being sold in blocks, and high food prices. She said she doesn’t care about the absence of TamTams because she doesn’t have little children.

This year there haven’t been disturbing cases of mislabeled foods as in the past, she added, but the consumer has to be careful.

Long gone are the days of the 99-cent pound of Maxwell House coffee, the 39-cent quarter bottle of Mott’s apple juice, or lack of information. Today, the holiday demands a savvy consumer who knows how to navigate the complicated world of kosher food. Oh, the Land of the Free.