Retail potato sales jumped 32% in volume and 31% in dollars between March 16 and June 14 as COVID-19 safety measures kept people eating at home.
Potatoes USA said all major categories except deli-prepared sides posted year-over-year gains in volume and dollar sales.
The Colorado-based marketing organization, citing Information Resources Inc. data, said in a news release that year-over-year increases were posted by category in dollars and total volume, respectively:
• Dehydrated, 59.1% and 48.7%.
• Frozen, 50.8% and 44.4%.
• Fresh, 46.4% and 35%.
• Chips, 19.3% and 13.1%.
Retail sales of deli-prepared sides fell by 22.5% in dollars and 24.2% in volume.
Potatoes USA said prices rose 8.4% for fresh potatoes, 4.4% for frozen, 7% for dehydrated, 5.5% for chips and 2.3% for deli-prepared sides.
In the fresh category, fingerling sales rose 8% in dollars but fell 7.2% in volume. Prices increased 16.5%.
Idaho Potato Commission Retail Vice President Seth Pemsler said consumers bought more potatoes, known as a value food popular amid economic uncertainty, to prepare at-home meals.
Mike Krage, the commission’s retail director of the Upper Midwest and the Northeast, said IPC early in the pandemic worked with retailers to get potatoes out of storage room and into the store. “They couldn’t keep their shelves full.”
He said solutions included helping stores make greater use of floor space by designing palate displays of larger potatoes — originally destined for foodservice but re-routed to retail — and presenting bags of retail-sized potatoes in “waterfall” and special end-cap configurations. The commission also immediately shared demand data.
“This was all driven to keep in-stock conditions at the best level they could be,” Krage said.
While the Potatoes USA statistics include urgent buying in March and April, “the increase is still holding very strong,” he said, up 20% or more from a year earlier.
Washington Food Industry Association CEO and President Jan Gee said grocery store sales continue to grow after the initial surge, including in “center-store” categories such as noodles and canned goods.
Sales of packaged foods and prepared meals, on the rise before the pandemic, continue to have a fair amount of growth, she said. But many stores for a while shut down salad bars and other grab-and-go offerings of fresh, unpackaged foods.
Pemsler said the deli-prepared sides category of potatoes refers to fresh food scooped into a bowl and not sealed — demanded less lately for safety reasons. Similarly, more produce has been sold in bags.
“Consumers want to make sure food is protected,” he said.
As for the mixed results in the fingerling-potato category, Pemsler said the product’s premium price could be an issue, though it’s a small segment that could have been affected by various factors during the short reporting period.
Southwind Farm Inc. is a fingerling-potato grower based in Heyburn, Idaho. President Robert Tominaga said fingerlings account for about 3% of fresh potatoes.
Southwind grows fingerlings for foodservice, but they instead went to retailers — “a blessing for us,” he said.
Some areas that produce heavy supplies of retail fingerlings had weather problems during the 2019 harvest and lost much of their crop, he said.
July 23, 2020 at 11:15PM
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Potato retail sales surge from March to June - Capital Press
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