August 9, 2005

Al-Fareed debuts 'African Sunshine'

New soda promotes African demographics and awareness

 By Ayana Jones,

Tribune Staff Writer

A local entrepreneur has made a foray into the food and beverage industry.

 Rafiq Al-Fareed, a community and economic development organizer, has launched a new business entity known as the Unique Food Group.

Based at 3201 Fox St., the company has joined the marketplace by introducing a new line of soda named African Sunshine to the marketplace. The product line was officially launched last week at ShopRite of Cheltenham.

The carbonated soft drink comes in six flavors, including Moroccan Grape, Egyptian Orange, Nigerian Fruit Punch, Ivorian Pineapple, Liberian Cola and Sudanese Pineapple Orange.

 "The strategy behind of the Unique Food Group is to identify and develop food products that have a special appeal to the African-American community that will also possess crossover appeal," Al-Fareed, a 54-year-old native of Philadelphia said.

 Prior to starting his business, he served as the vice president of economic development for Universal Community Homes. He currently serves as a board member of the Greater Philadelphia Minority Business Strategic Alliance, a nonprofit organization of public and private sector organizations.

Al-Fareed says that ShopRite has been very instrumental in giving his product a boost on the market. The new product can be found in six area ShopRite stores, as well as other markets such as The Fresh Grocer, Cousin's Supermarket and Sunshine Supermarket.

"It's a great product and I love to be part of helping a new minority business get started. I wanted to give Al-Fareed all the support he needed to bring it to market. Initial sales of this product have been very good in our stores," ShopRite of Cheltenham owner Jeff Brown said.

According to Al-Fareed, plans are in the works for the company to roll the product out nationally over the next five years. For the last 10 years, Al-Fareed has been working to market the Afro-centric beverage. Through the soft drink, Al-Fareed hopes to educate consumers about Africa by providing demographic information about African countries.

To that end, children from the Mt. Airy Church of God summer camp and Bilal Summer Camp participated in the African Sunshine Challenge. The challenge called for participating children to locate the featured African countries on a map and build the shape of each country using African Sunshine bottles.

The new product joins the marketplace at a time when the soda industry accounts for a significant portion of the nation's economy. According to Beverage Digest, the nation's carbonated soft drink industry accounts for sales of $65 billion.