The UK is at the forefront of a new pan-European programme, The Many Faces of Potatoes, aimed at arresting the decline in potato consumption.
Food and farming minister Jim Paice welcomed the first Potato Day last week which marked the start of the €4.75 million generic promotion of fresh potatoes across the UK, France and Belgium.
The objective of the push is to tackle misconceptions that younger consumers have about potatoes and show that they are an attractive alternative to rice and pasta; being healthy, convenient and above all, incredibly versatile.
The programme is worth €1.6m over three years for the UK, with the Potato Council and EU co-financing.
Speaking at Frogmary Green Farm in Somerset, Paice said: “The potato is a good value option - tasty, versatile and healthy. This will be a real boost to Britain’s potato industry.”
At the heart of activity in the UK is the search for a ‘master spud’ - a competition in which consumers will get the chance to star in a one-off TV advertisement to run in June 2011. High-profile celebrity chef Jean-Christophe Novelli is fronting the search, which will be publicised via a consumer PR campaign and partnership with The Sun newspaper.
Consumers can upload recipe ideas and cooking demonstrations to the campaign’s site between now and March to attempt to win the competition and Novelli will also provide potato-based recipes.
The fresh potato market remains steady with a 0.2 per cent increase in volume year on year (data to 5 September).
Potatoes faired well in the recession but there is a decline in consumption over the last ten years based on meal occasions - 10833 million meal occasions in 2001 featured potatoes as opposed to 10498 million 2010, which is a decline of around three per cent.
Caroline Evans, head of marketing and corporate affairs at Potato Council added: “There has been a significant drop in the number of fresh potatoes eaten in British homes and this new campaign will help to tackle this. The potato industry will benefit from an additional €0.81m investment in promotion over three years. This will compliment our existing programmes, such as ‘Grow your own potatoes’”.
The Potato Council division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board will co-ordinate efforts in the UK with CNIPT for France with Belgian efforts from VLAM for Flanders and APAQ-W for Wallonia.
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