Keep calm and eat carbs

With crops severely affected by wet weather, prices have inevitably increased for potatoes in the past year, but unfortunately consumption has not.

Although the average price has risen from 66p to 70p per kg, this is the actual shelf price and for many growers who signed supply contracts before the severe weather took hold, this brings few comforts.

Andy Clarkson, retail commercial director at Greenvale, says the difficulty of price inflation has probably been one of the biggest challenges for the industry to realise.

“With the shortest UK crop since the 1970s, inflation was inevitable and everyone has had to reduce their aspirations for this season. A position of ‘break even’ has been a target for some and for others there have already been inevitable losses,” he explains.

“However inflation that has passed on to consumers has had a minimal impact on consumption and total volume sales. The realisation that lower volumes and higher prices may be here for some time is now starting to sink in. Given the difficult seasons we have seen in the last five to 10 years this could be a turning point.”

Despite Clarkson’s assurance that consumers have not been adversely affected cost wise, potato volume sales have still declined slightly by 1.1 per cent and consumption occasions by 1.6 per cent, leaving the industry having to find new ways to persuade shoppers to reach for the carbs.

The Potato Council’s head of marketing and corporate affairs, Caroline Evans, says that while sales of economy lines are seeing a fall, there is the potential to encourage shoppers to trade up.

“Four in every 10 (39 per cent) of shoppers say they would pay more for better cooking results. This presents a significant opportunity to drive value for the category; a move from whites to a named variety such as Maris Piper could equate to an additional £56 million per annum,” she says.

“In 2013 the challenge is to give shoppers a clear reason to buy mid-tier named varieties. Potato Council research has identified better signposting as a real opportunity to build shopper understanding; using simple intuitive terms, emotive food photography and suggested usages.”

Kantar Worldpanel research shows that over a quarter of potato consumption occasions feature gravy, specifically roast potatoes and mashed. Given that 84 per cent of families, according to research by Mintel, still cook a Sunday roast, this is obviously the most popular meal to have potatoes with.

For supermarkets, this provides an opportunity to converse with customers over the value of potatoes and how they are a product that can stretch beyond the weekend.

Sainsbury’s recently launched the ‘Make Your Roast Go Further’ campaign to encourage people not to throw away their leftovers, but to make another meal with them.

The supermarket’s head of food, Susi Richards, says: “Our research shows that the Sunday Roast is a significant contributor to overall food waste in UK households and this is why we have made it an important part of our new Food Goes Further campaign. We have provided a series of easy-to-follow recipes for leftovers, meal planners and tips to help our customers make the most of their food.”

Recipes include potato rostis and tips cover how to freeze leftover potatoes.

At Waitrose, the focus is also on helping people to reduce waste and to eat the right portions with the supermarket launching a range of portion-control utensils, including a serving spoon for potatoes.

Waitrose’s nutrition manager, Moira Howie, says: “Shoppers generally know the right things to eat. However, it can all come unstuck when it comes to working out the right amount to eat. It’s not what to eat but how much.”

This fits perfectly with the Potato Council’s plans for an update of the ‘Many Faces of Potatoes’ campaign, which focuses on potatoes as naturally fat free and as a source of vitamin C. —

WHAT A CORKER

When you grow the best potatoes in the country for making chips, it’s a logical step to turn those spuds into award-winning crisps. Samantha Lyster reports

here are not many who can boast that a business idea occurred to them while shooting down a ski slope in Austria, but for farmer Ross Taylor this was the moment that Corkers Crisps was born.

Taylor, whose family have owned the 500-acre Willow Farm at Pymoor Common, Cambridgeshire since the 1800s, did not enter the family business straightaway and instead worked in logistics.

In 2004 his father was considering retirement and Taylor was contemplating taking up the reins, but knew that the farm could not keep relying upon one market for its potatoes. During the aforementioned ski holiday with his best friend Rod Garnham, the idea for a crisp brand came about after they shared an awful bag of the snack.

“We grow the Naturalo variety, which is the perfect potato for chips because of the low sugar content,” he says. “It doesn’t look good, so supermarkets will not take it, but it fries really well and is in demand from the chip shop industry. We put the potatoes on the spot market.

“At the moment prices are stable but we wanted to have a business where we could get more out of that crop. So we visited a crisp manufacturer, put the potatoes through their paces and at the end of it we got what we think is the perfect tasting crisp.”

Willow Farm is great example of diversification; not only do the Taylors grow spuds but they also rear Gressingham ducks and rent land to British Sugar.

Still, Taylor is aware that today farms need to have a number of strings to their bows in order to prosper during harsh weather and economic conditions.

“I think it has really helped that both Rod and I have backgrounds in different businesses other than farming,” he adds.

“That experience has helped a lot in building the Corker brand.”

At the moment, 40 per cent of the annual potato crop goes to crisps and the remainder to the chip market. However, with the increasing popularity of the Corkers brand – there is already a distribution channel in America through the hospitality trade – this ratio could change.

Department store Harvey Nicholls was the first retailer to order the crisps and from there the business has grown to producing 100,000 bags each week for distribution around delis and supermarkets.

The brand trades very well on its ‘Britishness’ and the marketing campaign has pushed the provenance of the product, made from potatoes grown in the rich, fertile soil of the Fens. It also helps that the crisps, available in six flavours with the sea salt and black pepper winning a Gold Taste Award, actually live up to the hype. Already they have gained fans among chefs and such is the incredible feedback from the public that British Airways will now stock the snacks on all flights.

With the potato market hit by a decrease in consumption and crop yields reduced by bad weather, the story of Corkers is a positive one that shows diversification can help a business to thrive.—