/ Modified sep 23, 2015 4:42 p.m.

Latino-Owned Businesses Growth Rapid in Arizona

Estimated 90,000 in state, a 70% increase over five years, according to new report.

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By Carrie Jung, for AZPM

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AZHispanic Chamber of Commerce

The number of Latino-owned businesses in Arizona has grown by more than 70 percent in eight years, with women entrepreneurs leading the way, the DATOS: State of Arizona's Hispanic Market Report said Wednesday.

The report said the number of female Hispanic business owners in the state more than doubled between 2007 and 2012.

Despite the growth, Hispanic-owned businesses are seeing less revenue than those owned by non-minorities, the report said, possibly because they have less access to external financing and thus cannot expand as demand dictates.

"We’re growing fast but we have less of a tenure, less of a histor," said Gonzalo de la Melena, president of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. "And so our goal is to help close that gap, and so if we could achieve parody collectively it would generate literally millions of dollars of benefit to the economy."

An estimated 90,000 Hispanic-owned businesses employ about 60,000 people in Arizona.

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