Kayla Vogel, Potatoes USA: Spuds are a ‘Dollar Growth Driver’

Fresh potatoes are a year-round sales powerhouse in the produce area, according to a recent Potatoes USA press release. Recent data and analysis reveal that fresh potatoes provide retailers with considerable opportunity to promote more consumer engagement.

“Potatoes are a strong seller in their own right, but a deep dive into the data shows that best-in-class merchandising can help retailers win big in produce and beyond. Potatoes have the highest household penetration of all vegetables and are purchased an average of 10 times per year. Their ability to bring stability to the produce department delivers subsequent sales for other items in and outside produce. As such, potatoes can be the accelerator to total produce and total store success. Potatoes also represent 21% of all fresh vegetable pounds sold last year and are one of the few produce items outpacing the 2019 pre-pandemic baseline in pounds sold,” Kayla Vogel, Senior Global Marketing Manager-Consumer at Potatoes USA, mentioned.

Vogel pointed out that fresh potatoes are “delivering the dollar,” even though inflationary pressures are affecting almost every product in the produce area.

Recent Circana statistics based on U.S. year-over-year sales ending July 31 show that fresh potatoes are the fourth most popular produce item and accounted for 5.3% of all fresh produce sales. They rank well behind tomatoes as the best-selling vegetable, accounting for 10.8% of total vegetable sales.

Fresh potatoes had the highest year-over-year growth rate of all produce goods, according to Vogel. She called potatoes a “dollar growth driver” in an era when shifting economic behaviors and economic pressures are hindering produce retail performance.

The same Circana data states that fresh potato dollar sales climbed 16.4% year over year to reach USD4.1bn, the greatest produce growth rate. Sales in dollars are risen 23.2% in the last two years. With an additional USD572m, fresh potatoes have been the leading produce item in terms of delivering new money over the previous year. This contrasts with an extra USD159m for the best-selling vegetable, tomatoes, and USD312m for the best-selling produce overall, berries. Over the past year, fresh potatoes have contributed more new dollars than all fruits combined.

Potatoes Are “A Retailer’s Dream”

Vogel continued by saying that fresh potatoes, with their robust marketing presence, also help retail.

“Fresh potatoes have an above-average share of dollars sold on promotions, at 35.6%, up 13.1% versus year-ago levels. This is above the total produce department and vegetable aisle. Potatoes are a retailer’s dream: high household penetration (85%), a high number of annual trips (10), and a nice dollar ring each trip (USD4.04, up 14.8% year-over-year). As budgets tighten, people have remained loyal to potatoes. That means a lot of opportunity to significantly move the needle through improved visibility, merchandising, and cross-merchandising,” she declared.

Finally, Vogel stated that if shops can persuade half of their present potato purchasers to make one additional potato purchase per year, they will create an additional USD220m in sales.

“This means there is enormous mutual benefit for growers and retailers to drive visibility and engagement for the potato category,” she summed up.