Idaho Potato Commission Considers Online Opportunities

The Idaho Potato Commission is considering advertising on major online sales platforms such as Amazon, Wal-Mart and Kroger Co. websites. “If we ran a program starting in May through August, it could cost a little over USD100,000,” Commission CEO Frank Muir said. Costs would be covered by recently lower spending on travel and on certain promotion and incentive programs.

The idea is to sell more Idaho potatoes via online platforms, which are growing in popularity. More than one-third of Americans have used them recently to get home deliveries. That's up from about 15% before COVID-19 concerns prompted stay-at-home orders in most of the country over the past six-plus weeks. Much of that buying is expected to continue even as many states reopen their economies this month.

“We are still evaluating it, and how to measure it,” Muir said. IPC analyzes the effectiveness of its national advertising in part by determining total impressions — the number of broadcast or online viewers — per dollar spent.

The Idaho industry, the nation’s largest — is trying to reduce the potato glut that materialized when restaurants and other foodservice outlets closed amid, COVID-19 concerns. About 60% of the state’s crop goes to fried or dehydrated products. The rest goes to the fresh market, divided roughly equally between retail and foodservice.

“We’re trying to move as much as we can through retail,” Muir said. “We’re not going to be able to move them all, but we’re going to do our best.”

The commission is offering retailers a USD25 payment for each 1,000-pound bin of large potatoes (10 ounces or more) purchased. IPC initially assisted retailers in filling shelves, emptied of bagged potatoes, with large potatoes packed in 50-pound cartons.

IPC field directors have been helping restaurant operators incorporate potatoes into menus reworked to be more affordable and suited to take-out trade. For consumers, commission staffers have provided additional recipes as well as guidelines for storing potatoes in larger quantities.