Bruce Huffaker, Publisher, North American Potato Market News
All fresh potatoes in the United States, except for specialty varieties, are marketed by skin color – russet, red, yellow or gold and white types. While that scheme simplifies marketing for retailers, it does a disservice to both consumers and potato growers. Growers produce at least 21 varieties of russet potatoes, 10 red varieties, 19 yellow varieties and 11 white potato varieties for fresh consumption. The industry needs to ask whether all of those potato varieties are truly interchangeable within the four categories that retailers are marketing currently.
Under the current marketing scheme, growers tend to select potato varieties based on performance in terms of marketable yields and input costs. Prices can vary by tuber size, but price variation by variety, within the four broad categories of potatoes, is rare. Idaho packers have managed to sell Russet Burbank count cartons at a premium to their Norkotah counterparts, though that differential may be narrowing over time, particularly for the smaller tuber sizes.
Idaho is the only state that requires packers to label potatoes by variety. Even though such labeling is required, packers expend little effort to use the labels in marketing. In fact, they make the labels on retail packages as inconspicuous as possible. Some Idaho packers are proposing that variety labels be limited to russet potatoes. Shippers in other states make little or no effort to distinguish between the potato varieties that they pack and market, beyond the four basic categories.
Cultivar Characteristics
Does it matter? Are all potatoes within each of the broad type categories interchangeable? Should consumers expect each of the varieties to perform equally well, regardless of the uses to which they are put? The answers to these questions are critical to the future of the table potato industry. If all potatoes with the same skin color perform the same as any other potato in that category, there is no need to change. However, if performance varies between varieties, marketing all of them as interchangeable will confuse consumers and could lead to reduced sales over time.
This isn’t about which potato is best. Some varieties may perform better in particular recipes while others do better for other uses. It may be that both varieties make acceptable cooked products of the same type, but need to be prepared differently to make the most acceptable dishes. Flavor varies between potato varieties. It is a matter of individual preference, but consumers should be given choices and the opportunity to find and purchase their preferred variety consistently.
Texture is another distinguishing factor between potato varieties. Experts describe texture in various ways, though they have separated potatoes into broad categories: high, medium or low dry matter. They use various terms to describe the difference, such as mealy and waxy, but these terms generally refer to the amount of solids in the tubers. Contrary to information accessible online, not all russet potatoes are high-solids varieties, and not all “colored” potatoes are low-solids varieties.
Variety Differentiation
Can marketing potato varieties make a difference? At a minimum, marketing by variety could reduce the risk of confusing customers with inconsistent performance. It also has the potential to boost demand by encouraging consumers to experiment with new potato varieties and new recipes.
Apple marketing efforts may be instructive. Can anyone imagine a world in which grocery stores only offered their customers two types of apples: red and green? Now imagine being told that a Granny Smith apple and Golden Delicious apple are interchangeable. It makes no sense because we know that one is tart and the other is sweet, despite the fact that both have a greenish hue to their skin.
The potato example most cited is the contrast between the Russet Burbank and the Norkotah – one being a high-solids potato and the other with much lower solids. Both have their place; however, they need to be prepared differently and cannot be used successfully in all the same applications.
With at least 21 russet varieties being grown for fresh market applications in the U.S., there are sure to be more differences between varieties that are hidden under the mantle of “russet potatoes.” We suspect the same is true for the 19 varieties of commercially available yellow potatoes, along with at least 10 varieties of red potatoes and 11 white potato varieties.
Is it too much to ask retailers to feature more than three or four varieties of potatoes? Not all apples are available on a year-around basis, but we were able to identify 14 apple varieties being marketed simultaneously during the last week of October. It will take time and effort to convince retailers that differentiating potatoes by variety could boost sales and profitability, but brand differentiation is a proven strategy that retailers use all the time. That is why General Mills sells at least 13 different varieties (not package sizes) of Cheerios.
Potato breeders expend a great deal of effort to develop new potato cultivars. The 2019 seed potato variety list published by the Potato Association of America lists 659 cultivars, including experimental varieties and line selections. That list has grown from 395 cultivars 10 years earlier. The plant breeders have focused on developing varieties that are easier to grow, that are disease-resistant, require fewer inputs, and/or that meet the needs of either processors or potato chip manufacturers. Much less effort has been made to differentiate the plethora of varieties for retail customers.
Marketing Paradigm Shift
It will take a concerted effort to change the way that potatoes are marketed. Marketers need to document the benefits and uses of specific potato varieties, prepare recipes designed specifically to take advantage of the best characteristics of each variety and be willing to invest in promotional activity specific to each of the varieties.
Such an effort may not lend itself very well to quasi-government marketing agencies such as Potatoes USA and the Idaho Potato Commission because such efforts might be perceived as favoring growers of certain varieties. While these organizations could help establish a framework for variety marketing, individual marketing organizations would need to do the research and promotional activity to create the need for further variety differentiation in potato marketing.
New marketing tools could reduce the cost of establishing a market identity for individual potato varieties. QR codes on potato packages could direct customers to websites devoted to individual varieties or to recipes and explanations on Pinterest and other social media platforms. Such campaigns could be successful in reaching those consumers most interested in experimenting with new food adventures and with optimizing their experiences with potatoes.
One of the challenges to varietal marketing has been the fear that other marketers – “free riders” – would be able to piggyback off a company’s marketing efforts without participating in the cost. One suggested solution has been to have individual packing sheds control the supply of a particular potato variety. We are aware of a few instances where that model is being used, but most potato variety protection efforts in the U.S. have focused on where growers purchase their seed – not on where they can market the potatoes. Changing that paradigm would be extremely difficult. Adding brand differentiation – based on customer service, consistency and reliability – could mitigate the impact of “free riders.” General Mills has not let the fact that private label imitations exist deter it from aggressively marketing Cheerios.
Huffaker’s Highlights:
- Variety differentiation could be a way to expand the market for fresh potatoes.
- Skin color alone is not a reliable indicator of a potato’s culinary characteristics.
- Changing the marketing paradigm for fresh potatoes would require a substantial investment.
- Private marketing organizations are best placed to be able to succeed in varietal differentiation.
