Potato sales at retail have been strong since the COVID-19 pandemic began, and a Potato Expo panel of suppliers and retailers agreed that momentum will likely continue through 2021.
Retail consultant Michael Sansolo moderated the Jan. 6 panel that considered retail potato performance during the pandemic and what is needed to maintain brisk sales.
Turning the kitchen light on
One thing that the pandemic did was “turn the lights back on in the kitchen,” said panelist Steve Williams, vice president of produce and floral for Jacksonville, Fla.-based Southeastern Grocers.
People are cooking more at home, and that also shows up in sales of cooking ingredients such as spices, he said.
“I don’t see (the cooking trend) going away anytime soon,” Williams said. “Now that plays in favor of the people who are growing and selling potatoes because I do believe that the whole potato category is doing extremely well.”
While potato sales have backed off since the first restrictions on restaurants in March, Williams said shoppers continue to make larger food purchases when they shop.
“They are not coming to the store as often (as before COVID-19), but the size of their basket has really increased,” he said.
Communicating and working with suppliers on promotion efforts has been critical since the pandemic began, he said. “That really drove volume and also helped move product that (suppliers) needed to move,” Williams said.
Retailers have been able to work with shippers to adapt to changing product availability during the pandemic, said panelist Kevin Stanger, president of Idaho Falls-based Wada Farms Marketing Group.
“I do believe the teamwork that the industry put together, including transportation, to get things back on the shelves was really remarkable,” Stanger said. Strong retail potato movement will continue, he said. Retail sales of 10-pound bags of potatoes have been on a slow and steady decline over the past few years, but Stanger said that trend reversed in 2020.
He said the industry saw a 13% increase in 10-pound bagged potato sales in 2020, according to Nielsen data.
“It goes to show that potatoes are a great value for the price,” Stanger said. “For families eating at home, and especially those that are struggling, potatoes give a great value for home-cooked meals.”
Foodservice sales will come back in 2021, Stanger said, but the recovery could be
slow for six months or more.
Potatoes have gained household penetration during the pandemic and panelist Keith McGovern, president of Fargo, N.D.-based RD Offutt Farms, said the job now is to make sure potatoes are presented to younger consumers in exciting, fun and convenient ways.
“We need to make potatoes attractive to the younger buyer, because they are the buyers of the future,” he said.
A big challenge is increasing the use of potatoes for all meal occasions, said panelist Barry Starnes, produce category manager or Southeastern Grocers.
“How do we go after those occasions like breakfast or lunch, that may not be traditional produce department or retail grocery category opportunities?” he asked.
From the use of celebrity chefs to other promotion opportunities, Stanger said the potato industry must stup up marketing efforts.
“There are all different ways to go after it, but I think as an industry, we have to work at it an we have to be more creative than we’ve been,” he said.