Specialty Food Producers Have Been Tasty So Far In 2009

January hasn't been kind to the buy and hold investor. Short selling, put buying, call writing, and, maybe, some savvy trading would have goosed performance.

Besides the For Profit Education stocks that I've written about before and believe to be overvalued, there is another small industry subset that has done well. Specialty Food has done nicely so far this year. I'm not talking the likes of Kellogg, ConAgra, or Pepsi, but their smaller, niche brethren.

Flowers Foods, Diamond Foods, and Smart Balance all have staked out corners of the food industry and dominate their niche. FLO reported today and beat by 3 cents and had a promising outlook. DMND had a similar report about a week ago. SMBL hasn't reported earnings yet, but they haven't pre-announced either. I own all three and wish I owned more at my entry basis. Adding to a position in this market is always dangerous since many brilliant ideas turn into falling knives. If I add more it will probably be FLO as they have the most conservative balance sheet.

It will be interesting to see how these companies perform in a bear market rally. they've done well by me since January and I remain hopeful that they will continue to

be tasty.