Potatoes USA held the 47th annual meeting of the National Potato Promotion Board March 12-14 in Denver. This is an annual gathering of the full 100-plus-member board made up of growers and allied industry members from around the country. The meeting kicked off with the first annual Total Tater Training workout class. The 30-minute boot camp-style class was well-attended and enjoyed, though there were a number of complaints over the following days of sore muscles. Breakfast following the workout featured a number of different potato dishes designed to enhance recovery and provide the power to focus during the long day of presentations following. The next order of business was meetings of the five working committees that dictate programs and policies: International Marketing, Domestic Marketing, Industry Outreach, Research and Finance & Policy.
The International Marketing Committee meeting focused on the many factors impacting exports of U.S. potatoes and products. U.S. potato exports declined 6 percent in volume in 2018 as the strong dollar, tight U.S. supplies and U.S.-initiated trade wars took their toll on U.S. competitiveness. The largest and most direct impact of the trade wars is on the export of frozen potatoes to Mexico, which are down 26 percent from June-December 2018, a loss of 23,145 metric tons. Looking forward, the implementation of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership, or TPP11, without the inclusion of the U.S., on Dec. 28, 2018, has initiated the four-year process of eliminating the tariffs on all potato and potato product imports. The second year of this process commenced on Jan. 1, meaning that Canada, New Zealand and Australia now face half the tariff the U.S. does on their products entering Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia and other important markets. These competitive disadvantages will be compounded with the implementation of free trade agreements between the European Union and Japan and Vietnam by early summer 2019.
To try and combat these issues, Potatoes USA applied for and received $3.6 million in Agricultural Trade Promotion (ATP) funding from the USDA. The ATP funds will be used over the next two years to develop new markets for U.S. potato exports and to bolster competitiveness in established markets. Potatoes USA also obtained $4.9 million in Market Access Program (MAP) funding to be used for ongoing export development programs in Asia and Latin America in the coming July-June fiscal year.
The Domestic Marketing Committee meeting focused on the growing demand for potatoes in the U.S. market. For the marketing year to date, July 2018-February 2019, the value of potato sales at retail has grown by 2.4 percent, while volume has declined by only 1.5 percent. The value of fresh sales at retail is up 1.8 percent, while volume is off by 4.2 percent, driven almost entirely by declines in sales of 10-pound and larger bags of russets. The occurrence of potato dishes on restaurant menus across the country has risen to 83 percent, with fries on 63 percent of menus. Potato dishes on K-12 school foodservice menus increased by 24 percent over the past two school years. A strong indication that consumers are preparing more potatoes at home is the 35 percent increase in recipe searches on the Potatoes USA consumer site, potatogoodness.com.
In addition to reports on the Potatoes USA domestic marketing programs for foodservice, retail, ingredients and consumers the staff highlighted the incredible success of the new Performance Strategy and What Are You Eating? campaign. After only 8 months in the market potatoes are already being recognized for their benefits to athletic performance with significant increases in consumer ratings since last year in:
- Helps fuel me for my everyday activities, +5 percent
- Provides sustained energy, +6 percent
- Good for athletic performance, +7 percent
- Used and approved by athletes, +10 percent
This has been achieved by participation in the Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon series where potatoes are the official performance vegetable. Potatoes USA had a presence at races in Chicago, Philadelphia and San Antonio, with San Francisco coming up in April. The potato performance message was visible to 72,000 expo attendees and 15,000 performance recipe samples were distributed. The performance message also had thousands of online exposures through featured content on RunRockNRoll.com, inclusion in pre and post-race emails and digital event guide presence. Consumers and athletes have also learned about the performance power of potatoes through social media, where influencer posts and event activities have resulted in 5 million performance engagements leading to 50,000 performance page views (PotatoesFuelPerformance.com) and nearly 14,000 performance recipe page views. The grassroots effort of spreading the word through everyday athletes has resulted in Team Potato growing to over 150 members.
Nutrition professionals have also been a focus of the program. In this space, there have been over 13,000 nutrition content engagements driven by nutrition professional newsletters, partner communications such as NSCA, NHSCA and SHAPE, and event participation with these organizations. There have also been over 25,000 visits to the nutrition page on PG.com and 1,300 to the nutrition professionals page.
The results of the grower survey were provided during the Industry Outreach Committee meeting. The survey was sent to all U.S. potato growers and there was a very good response in terms of geographic and farm size distribution of the responses. The responses were very favorable of the Potatoes USA strategic approach, programs and communication tools. Ninety-one of respondents had familiarity with the Board’s programs, and 81 percent felt that Potatoes USA was doing a good job at strengthening demand for potatoes. There are areas in communication with the industry where Potatoes USA can improve, particularly the usefulness of the Potatoesusa.com website. Fortunately, funds have already been set aside for an upgrade of the site.
A Potatoes USA ambassador program training was then held for all Board members on proper message delivery and the nutrition science behind the performance messages. The Board members were armed with how to discuss the What Are You Eating? campaign with others in the industry and to speak with consumers about the performance benefits of potatoes.
During the Research Committee meeting staff reported a substantial increase in the level of industry engagement and support of potato research projects. Since 2016, it has nearly doubled and led directly to more than $10 million in additional potato research funding in the same amount of time. In 2018, certified seed acreage for Potatoes USA National Chip Program graduate Lamoka grew by 28 percent, or 755 acres, over the prior year. It now is more prevalent than industry standards Snowden and Atlantic. Varieties developed in the National Chip Program now account for 23 percent of all chipping variety certified seed acres in the U.S. On the potato nutrition research front, Michelle Kijek of FoodMinds gave a summary of the 23 studies currently underway and the published research associated with them.
The Board meeting focused on the business of board membership and governance. The modified strategic plan and budget for the coming fiscal year (July 2019-June 2020) were approved, as were some modifications to the Board’s policies. Thirty-one new Potatoes USA board members, recently appointed by the secretary of agriculture, were sworn in. Phil Hickman from Horntown, Va., was elected as the new chairman, replacing Dan Moss of Declo, Idaho.
There was only one new member elected to the Executive Committee; Steve Elfering of Idaho Falls, Idaho, is the new co-chair of the Domestic Marketing Committee, joining Jaren Raybould from Saint Anthony, Idaho. Marty Meyers of Boardman, Ore., and Steve Streich from Kalispell, Mont., repeat as co-chairs of the International Marketing Committee, while Heidi Alsum-Randall of Cambria, Wis., and Sheldon Rocky of Center, Colo., will again be co-Chairs of Industry Outreach. Chris Hansen of Bliss, N.Y., and Eric Schroeder of Antigo, Wis., continue as co-chairs of the Research Committee, and Jason Davenport of Arvin, Calif., will continue to lead the Finance & Policy Committee.
Potatoes USA will hold its Summer Meeting on Aug. 13-14 in Nashville, Tenn.