Sep 29, 2017Exports to remain important but efforts are underway on domestic demand
The U.S. exported more potatoes, in terms of both volume and value, than ever before last marketing year. Potatoes USA and other groups are working to keep that growth, but there are also efforts to increase domestic demand by leveraging an existing brand and by rethinking how to approach promoting potatoes’ nutritional benefits.
“We’re trying to get out of the defensive posture and get out in front of this whole conservation about potatoes,” said Potatoes USA CEO Blair Richardson.
Richardson said the organization has done well in protecting the potato brand in the U.S. for the past 15 years but that the group is also looking at ways to build demand. With consumers being constantly bombarded by changing information on nutrition and with different nutrients taking the media spotlight every few months Richardson said it’s important to be simple and proactive in messaging about potatoes.
“It’s not only OK to eat potatoes, but that they need to be eating more potatoes. That’s where they need to be,” he said.
Richardson said the Potatoes USA board agreed to put $350,000 toward consumer research on promoting the positive nutritional aspects of potatoes. Once that work is done, the research will be shaped into ads and other messaging for consumers.
He was clear that, in the meantime, Potatoes USA is not abandoning its efforts to counter negative messages about potatoes and its other successful programs but simply adding another tool to the toolbox.
In Idaho, Frank Muir, CEO and president of the Idaho Potato Commission, said the organization is adding another tool to increase demand. He said the IPC is using the premium product status that comes with “Made in Idaho” to access foreign markets and to increase demand here at home.
Muir said that Idaho potatoes are now exported to 30 countries across the globe, a notable increase from 15 years ago.
“We have to expand our markets because our yields are going up and our acres are not going down,” he said back then. “So, we have figure out where do all these potatoes go.”
Not being on a coast, he said that in order to make it economically feasible to ship Idaho potatoes to many of these countries the quality of Idaho potatoes has to be front and center.
“The premium nature of the brand allows us to have access other countries,” he said.
While in many of those countries Idaho may never be number one, that premium status gives Idaho access to high end restaurants and grocery stores where “customers are going after a unique branded experience.”
The IPC is now using a similar strategy to tap into what Muir calls a “ghost market” in the US, the demand for Idaho-branded frozen potatoes. The “Grown in Idaho” seal has long been seen on fresh potatoes and now it will be seen on frozen products as well.
The key to the success of both the IPC’s export and domestic efforts is maintaining the Idaho brand. Muir said the IPC is constantly on the lookout for those trying to infringe on the Idaho brand and they have had to bring cases involving companies in Turkey, Chile and the European Union. In the past there have also been domestic cases of states outside of Idaho calling their potatoes “Idaho potatoes.”
A sentiment shared by Muir and Richardson is that when you have a strong brand, there will always be challengers. Richardson said just like in pro football or baseball, there will always be those trying to pick on number one.
“This is a great time in the history of the U.S. to be in the potato industry,” he said.
Another opinion that Muir shares with Richardson is that the new, proactive approach can be effective in promoting potatoes in the U.S. market.
“We don’t have a demand issue,” he said. “We have to quit being apologetic and be more aggressive in our ad campaigns and promotion activities, because people want to eat more potatoes, and the numbers show that.”
—Scott Stuntz, managing editor
