One of the biggest challenges facing the potato industry is securing the long-term growth of the category, through new varieties, improved production techniques, better storage and the right marketing campaigns. This is not easy, but it will all be for nothing if the sector fails to secure a future market by encouraging the younger generation to eat more potatoes.
This is a hurdle in itself, given the presence of rival carbohydrates rice and pasta, the exclusion of potatoes from the 5 A DAY promotions and the perception that potatoes represent the marathon task of peeling, chopping and cooking.
The Potato Council is leading promotions with a number of consumer-facing campaigns, backed by annual schools project Grow your Own Potatoes, which aims to invest in the future by teaching up to 30,000 schoolchildren about where potatoes come from, how they are grown and how good they are for you.
But behind the scenes, the industry is working hard to face up to the challenge of securing a loyal market for potatoes, both now and in the future.
Lincolnshire grower and long-standing category ambassador Jim Godfrey insists that the first priority must be to “make sure that eating potatoes is the second most pleasurable thing in life”. He commends the “fantastic” work of the Potato Council, but he maintains that there is potential for the industry to reposition itself and its offer in order to grow sales.
“You always have to be looking at different ways of presenting potatoes, so that it can be prepared easily, cooked quickly and given interesting flavours,” says Godfrey.
“That comes back onto breeding new varieties and trying to keep moving forward, but what we have got to do is bring back variety awareness. That is coming through and we have already seen that with apples, but there is a wonderful opportunity for the potato sector to really move forward with that.
“Potato consumption has been static for a number of years, about 50:50 fresh and processed, but we have to continue to offer better quality and new products if we are going to move the category on.”
This is no easy task, but the major players know that a strong offer has to be the backbone of the category to enable it to stand up to increasing competition and grow consumption among the younger generation, both now and as they grow older.
So how can the potato industry secure the long-term growth of the category?
“In a word - innovation,” says Simon Martin, who heads up QV Foods. “We need to make potatoes easy and simple to use, while making them interesting to eat. For fresh potatoes, this means looking at varieties that are fit for purpose - the younger generations do not have the knowledge of potatoes that their predecessors seemed to possess so we need to make the choices simpler.”
The firm is homing into a younger market by tapping into pester power and setting up talks with both Disney and Fox Entertainment about different projects that are expected to come to fruition in the next few months.
“The other big push will be convenience,” Martin continues. “People have grown up with the convenience and versatility of pasta and rice over the last years, so prepared potatoes need to match this.
“The consumption of fresh potatoes has levelled off over the last few years and going forward I think this will only start to slip back now as the consumer continues to look for more convenience formats, such as ready prepared lines, either chilled or frozen.”
Many agree that, for both fresh and frozen, getting potatoes into the 5 A DAY scheme would be a big boost for the category as it would acknowledge the health benefits of potatoes.
At the same time, Potato Council research shows that many consumers now eat with just a fork - forks outsell knives two to one - so the potato offer will have to adapt to better fit into these habits. The rest is down to the industry itself to ensure that it provides the products that younger consumers are looking for.
Graeme Beattie, managing director of Branston, insists that potatoes must be presented in a more inspiring way as consumer feedback shows that many “find it hard to make the mental leap from the raw potatoes they see on the shelf to a steaming pile of creamy mash or a crispy golden roast”.
“We need to give them more visual cues and help them to realise the potential that’s in the pack - recipes and instructions, with cooked product images are key,” he says. “We’re also developing quicker and easier ways for consumers to enjoy potatoes. At our prepared foods factory, we’re continuing to expand the range, creating ready prepared products that cook from fresh in just a few minutes. We’ve got potatoes in a range of easy-to-use packaging, including microwaveable pouches and oven-ready trays to appeal to consumers who want convenience without compromising on taste or quality.”
Keith Hogg, commercial director at Greenvale AP, agrees that the category needs to move away from its perception as “relatively bland, relatively samey”.
“There is actually a lot going on in the potato category,” he says. “But we have to make it more interesting for the consumer and easier to understand. The truth is that you can cook potatoes in 12-15 minutes and we have to get that message across, as an industry. If we can make the pie bigger and grow the whole category, that’s good for everyone involved.”
In some cases, the development of a strong brand can help secure a loyal following, providing a recognisable name that consumers can go back to again and again.
The Kent Potato Company Ltd launched branded new potato packs across the county last week, backed by both a PR and in-store campaign intended to pull in shoppers.
William Church, commercial manager at the Kent Potato Company Ltd and the Jersey Royal Company, says the key to increasing consumption is to “interact with the public” to build an effective campaign. “We are very proactive in the way we work with food writers and try to put out a lot of inventive recipes to encourage people to try our potatoes,” he explains. “We hope their children will grow up with the same ties and same desire to eat them.”
The sector is aware that is needed to tackle this problem at the roots, by teaching children and their parents about how and why they should eat potatoes and hoping that they will take this knowledge with them as they grow up.
This year, Fenmarc linked up with growing partner Agrimarc to tie its involvement with the Grow Your Own Potatoes project with Open Farm Sunday and build on what the children learnt in school and connect it to the bigger farming environment.
Greenvale, Branston and QV Foods are among the suppliers that have got involved in the Grow Your Own Potatoes initiative in the last few years, providing seed potatoes and volunteers and helping schools plant and harvest their crop.
Across the sector, growers and suppliers know they have their work cut out to keep people buying potatoes. The industry has started on the right track by identifying the problem but as each generation grows up, it will be up to the main players to make sure potatoes remain popular to secure the long-term future of the category.
SPUDS ON SHOW AT GERMAN SHOWPIECE
There will be an X in the calendar of major potato players next week, when more than 10,000 will meet in Hanover for PotatoEurope 2010.
The two-day event, in the Bockerade Estate in Springe-Mittelrode, will feature more than 150 exhibitors from 12 countries.
The open-air exhibition will focus on the latest trends in the potato category and feature trial plots and machinery demonstrations focusing on planting, lifting and loading, alongside an extensive technical programme.
All links in the supply chain will be represented at the show, from planting, plant protection, fertilisers and harvesting through to storage and processing, right up to trading and marketing.
A series of forums will cover production quality, equipment, innovation in plant breeding and optimising planting machinery to name a few.
The event will be hosted by German agricultural society DLG and German potato industry association UNIKA, along with potassium and magnesium product supplier K+S Kali GmbH.
The reactions to the previous event in 2006 showed that 98 per cent rated the technical expertise as “excellent”, 96 per cent claimed to have improved their image and 88 per cent said the show was ideal for building new business connections.
For more information, visit www.potatoeurope.com.
FPJ will be exhibiting in Campus Zelthalle, ZD20.
POTATO COUNCIL RISES UP TO THE CHALLENGE
Caroline Evans, head of marketing and corporate affairs at the Potato Council, talks to FPJ about upcoming promotional plans .
How can the potato industry secure the long-term growth of the category?
While potato consumption is fairly robust, it is skewed towards the older generation. Research shows that 66 per cent of fresh potato purchases are by principle shoppers aged 45 and over. So to ensure that demand continues in the long term, the potato industry must build growth among younger consumers. The challenge is to ensure that this audience sees potatoes as versatile, tasty, and quick and easy to prepare.
Have you conducted any recent studies on potato consumption, perhaps as an update to Potatoes: A Choice for Life?
Potato Council undertakes an ongoing programme of consumer and market research. The results are shared with the industry to help drive marketing and NPD. Building up our knowledge of younger consumers and the best ways to reach them means Potato Council can maximise the impact of its marketing campaigns.
In the last year research projects have looked at identifying the barriers to potato consumption among the lowest users and understanding the optimal positioning. Consumers have a strong emotional association with potatoes, with is an advantage over rice and pasta. The challenge is to show younger consumers that potatoes can be part of quick, tasty and healthy meals, as the main barrier is the perception that pasta and the recent innovations in rice provide hassle-free solutions.
Potato Council is now able to take advantage of the collaborative buying power of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board. This has meant access to more data about the market, which includes a new quarterly report looking at consumers in home potato usage. This will provide valuable insights into changing consumer behaviour.
What are the latest initiatives that the Potato Council has launched to get younger consumers to eat more potatoes?
Potato Council is engaging with its target audience in a variety of ways. Dawn Porter, a busy celebrity journalist with a huge following, has been on a four-week time saving, healthy eating plan which positions potatoes as nutritious, tasty and easy. This plan, devised with the help of leading nutritionist Sian Porter, includes one potato-based meal a day. Dawn has been filming a weekly blog for www.lovepotatoes.co.uk while keeping her followers up to date on how she feels on the plan and sharing her recipe ideas.
Sanjay Dwivedi, star of TV series Iron Chef, has been developing a range of potato recipes with an international flavour. These will help to change perceptions that potatoes only form part of traditional British dishes. Videos of him preparing the dishes will be promoted online this autumn and the recipes used with the media.
Receiving co-financing from the European Union for a fresh potato marketing campaign, in the UK, France and Belgium, means there will be additional investment in promotion moving forward. The Many Faces of Potatoes concept looks at inspiring consumers to eat more potatoes through those who grow, cook and eat them. Central to this is a new interactive website that will create a potato community to share recipes, stories and solutions.
The campaign officially launches on October 14 - European Potato Day. At the heart of activity in the UK is the search to find ‘Britain’s Potato Faces’, culminating with a passionate potato fan starring in a one-off television advertisement due to air in June 2011.
Have you continued with the Love Potatoes campaign this summer? If so, have you had any results in?
There has been a range of marketing activity taking place this summer, as the warmer weather is a key opportunity to encourage consumers to change their meal repertoires. Younger consumers were targeted with a road show in shopping centres where they could sample a quick and tasty potato dish. It was reported that the ingredients would often sell out in the stores in the centres and there was also a surge in traffic to www.lovepotatoes.co.uk.
A new range of recipes were developed to show potato meals can be quick and healthy. Most of the recipes qualified for four green lights and were tasty as well. They are available on www.lovepotatoes.co.uk and have been used by the media and on many websites.
Other stories have also captured the media’s attention, including our new research that positions potatoes as a desirable shopping basket item. This resulted in coverage on national TV, a number of national newspapers and 10 radio interviews.
Have you had a chance to review Dawn Porter’s project yet?
Dawn’s time saving, healthy eating plan will be concluded at the end of September, after Dawn has completed her four-week diet and the results have been evaluated.
However, to date the project has been generating a lot of interest. The first three of Dawn’s video blogs have been viewed over 1,500 times. Some 22,000 Twitter followers have also been seeing Dawn’s messages about the potato plan - what she is cooking and eating and web links to recipe ideas, while also engaging in conversations online.
In the month that Dawn has been on board www.lovepotatoes.co.uk has also received an extra 8,000 visits. The results of the plan will be revealed in due course and will be available for the industry to use.
How else are you reaching out to younger consumers?
The Potato Girls Twitter feed and Love Potatoes Facebook page continue to interact and engage with the target audience. Recipe ideas and attention-grabbing news stories are strategically placed in key newspapers and magazines, while a celebrity chef that will resonate with younger consumers will be involved in the EU campaign activity.
Are you working to consumption targets?
Potato Council’s marketing objective is to increase consumer attitudes towards potatoes as healthy and convenient, and to include them as part of their weekday meal repertoires. This will halt potatoes’ loss of the carbohydrate share within the main meal category.
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