US cooking oil market shrinking due to Ice pressures on Latino households, Mazola owner says

The US cooking oil market is shrinking and unlikely to improve soon because of economic and immigration enforcement pressures on Latino households, the owner of the Mazola brand has said. George Weston, the chief executive of Associated British Foods (ABF), told City analysts that cooking oil sales had suffered as “our heavy use consumer is that Hispanic population who are under financial pressure, who are under pressure from Ice [Immigration and Customs Enforcement] and are feeling a bit miserable”. Anti-immigration raids championed by Donald Trump have disproportionately affected Latino communities , prompting some consumers to switch to online shopping. Weston said Hispanic customers were also reusing cooking oil more frequently. “Typically that population will be using oils three times before they throw it out, we think it’s gone to four in many cases,” said the boss of ABF, which also owns brands such as Twinings, Kingsmill and the fashion retailer Primark. “We don’t think that that’s going to change into 2027.” Weston also said Stratas Foods, ABF’s US joint venture supplying oils to the food service sector, was being hit by the rapid uptake of appetite-suppressing drugs. “We are undoubtedly seeing the consequences of GLP-1s on foodservice demand, particularly for fried food,” he said. ABF’s overall grocery sales rose 1% in the three months to 20 June, with lower US oils sales offset by growth in brands such as Twinings. …