Potato Bytes
Potato News
Friday, March 21, 2008
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Northern Plains Potato Growers Association
Office News
From the NPPGA President, Duane Maatz – United States Potato Board - The Annual Meeting of the USPB was held last week in Denver. Along with the reports on accomplishments and the plans for the future, was the unveiling of the new “Potatoes. . . Goodness Unearthed” promotional theme and logo.
The theme was designed by the likes of the “Just Do It”, “The Other White Meat” and “Milk Mustache people. Execution and use within the campaign includes the growth strategy to place advertisements in targeted publications and websites which positively impact our audience’s attitudes towards potatoes. And after having a new appreciation for the goodness of potatoes, our target audience consumes potatoes more often.
The productivity strategy includes the development of breakthrough advertising creative which delivers the message to the targeted audience in a compelling way. Intentions are to use a well-crafted media plan to replace current ads in publications and websites that reach the targeted audience at a time and place where the audience is receptive to our message.
Consumer survey focus group participants agree that the logo sends a healthy and fresh message to consumers. I believe it also creates a mental link to production. As our consumers distance themselves from the farm, it becomes increasingly important to continuously educate the population on agricultural practices to give an understanding of where our food comes from and that food doesn’t just grow itself.
We have a long way to go in educating our consumer. Farmers make a great contribution in producing food and fuel, as well as being environmental stewards contributing to our economy and quality of life. This logo may or not be the silver bullet needed to fulfill all of our marketing needs, but I believe there are a variety of uses, opportunities and applications that will certainly enhance our current programming activity. There is not a single marketing scheme in the US today that could not benefit through the use of this new campaign.
NPPGA Research - Our research committee met earlier this week to review research proposals for the 2008 production season. As part of our planning for the next fiscal year the group has recommended the allocation of 38% of our anticipated 2008 revenues to be spent on research programs. Our goal is to maintain research funding at one-third the value of these funds. The Advertising an Promotions Committee will meet on Monday to solidify their plans and make their financial recommendation to the Budget Committee, who will meet in the upcoming weeks.
From the NPPGA Marketing Director, Ted Kreis –The United Potato Partners hosted a seminar on Tuesday at the Alerus Center in Grand Forks. Bayer CropScience, Amvac, and Winfield Solutions had representatives on hand to explain how their partnerships with the United Potato Growers of America could benefit local growers should the Red River Valley officially join the national co-op. At this time that decision is still in doubt. The Red River Valley Fresh Board of Directors will make one final push this coming week to sign up enough members to make the affiliation with UPGA feasible. The original sign-up deadline was today, but was extended until Thursday (March 27 th).
USPB Assessment Increase Denied - The idea of raising the assessment from its current two and a half cents to three cents per hundredweight was discussed at the United States Potato Board Annual Meeting last week. The increased income would help fund the “Goodness Unearthed” campaign and other programs. A motion to continue the current assessment was made, seconded and passed. Those voting no favored the increase but were in the clear minority. Many felt it was too soon to ask for an increase just two years after a half cent increase passed in 2006. Other concerns included rising input costs competing for the same dollar, and the lack of a clear plan as to how the extra income would be spent.
Red Shippers Still Busy – With the Easter rush about over, business continues to be very good for Red River Valley fresh shippers. New price quotes for #1 size-A reds are generally in the $15 range in totes.
Red Planting Intentions - Cuts in red acreage this spring may not be as deep as earlier predicted. Most sheds are now reporting they are getting adequate commitments for the ’08 crop.
Red Crop Transition Meeting Scheduled – UPGA is again sponsoring a Red Crop Transition Meeting in June. Many think that last year’s meeting attributed to a more successful transition from the summer red crop into the fall shipping season. This year’s meeting will be held at the same location, The Holiday Inn Select, Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport, I-494 and 34 th Ave. South, Exit 1. Please email me (tkreis@nppga.org) if you would like more information.
BYTES TRIVIA – Last week’s Trivia winner was Sheila Hannesson at Simplot in Grafton. She knew the three leaves of the Shamrock represent the Trinity in the Protestant faith.
Here is this week’s Trivia question: Who designed the Italian national flag? Send your answer to tkreis@nppga.org. The winner will receive a RedHawks Mr. Potato Head.
THIS WEEK’S DEEP THOUGHT: Why do they lock gas station bathrooms? Are they afraid someone will clean them?
Industry News
From the North Dakota Dept. of Ag – Project Safe Send Collection Sights Announced - Project Safe Send, North Dakota’s annual collection of unusable pesticides, will be conducted at 16 locations in July. "This is a good time to look through your barns, sheds, garages and storage areas for unusable pesticides," said Agriculture Commissioner Roger Johnson. "With 16 collection sites across the state, it should be easy for everyone to participate in Project Safe Send, and get rid of their unusable pesticides safely and at no charge.”
The collections are scheduled from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. (local time) at the following dates and sites. All collection sites are at North Dakota Department of Transportation (DOT) maintenance facilities, except the collection in West Fargo, which will be held at the county highway shop..
- Tuesday, July 8, West Fargo.
- Wednesday, July 9, Grafton.
- Thursday, July 10, Grand Forks.
- Friday, July 11, Finley.
- Monday, July 14, Wahpeton.
- Tuesday, July 15, Lisbon.
- Tuesday, July 15, Bismarck.
- Wednesday, July 16, Ellendale.
- Wednesday, July 16, Bowman.
- Thursday, July 17, Jamestown.
- Thursday, July 17, Belfield.
- Friday, July 18, Watford City
- Monday, July 21, Kenmare.
- Tuesday, July 22, Velva.
- Wednesday, July 23, Harvey.
- Thursday, July 24, Cando.
More information about Project Safe Send can be found on NDDA’s website, www.agdepartment.com (click on “Hot Topics”). Authorized by the North Dakota Legislature, Project Safe Send is funded through the fees paid by pesticide manufacturers to register their products in North Dakota. Since 1992, more than 2 million pounds of waste pesticides have been collected through Project Safe Send.
From the US Potato Board - USPB Chip Seminar 2008 - By: Mac Johnson VP Marketing USPB - The 2008 Chip Seminar held March 5-8 was once again a huge success. Over 200 chip growers, manufacturers, and industry suppliers gathered at the Wyndham Resort in Orlando, FL to network, discuss issues and identify opportunities. The 200+ attendees represent over 90% of US chipping potato production and almost 90% of potato chip production.
Key subjects covered included an update of the Economy with a glance at the future by Dr. Gene Stanaland, president and founder of GSE, Inc. George Taylor was a featured speaker on Friday. A renowned climatologist, discussed global warming, fact or fiction. Acrylamide, variety testing, supply, demand, and a myriad of other subjects were covered over the 3 days of meetings.
Potatoes going to chippers represent over 22% of the entire US potato production, and while there have been hundreds of new snack items introduced over the past several years, potato chips are still far and away the most popular salty snack in America. Given the overall size and importance of this market it’s critical to maintain an open line of communications, and the seminar represents the only meetings the gets all the parties together.
Next year the seminar moves from March to January as it becomes part of the overall Industry Summit. Importantly, however, the format of the Summit will still allow time for the chip industry to meet to discuss chip industry specific issues and opportunities.
The USPB would like to thank the growers and manufacturers for their support of this year’s seminar. But also extend a special thanks to the growers from Northern Plains for their support and attendance. Once again Duane’s samples of the finished product of the variety trials were a big success. Guess Duane will never retire.
USPB Publicizes International Year of the Potato - Throughout the past two months, the USPB has celebrated the International Year of the Potato with consumers in ways that extend the potato nutrition message, introducing the new campaign signature "Potatoes...Goodness Unearthed™". Public relations efforts, to date, have generated an amazing 42 MILLION consumer impressions.
January 17, 2008, marked the official kick-off, with spokespersons Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough, co-authors of The Ultimate Potato Book, delivering potato nutrition messages to 24 TV and radio stations across the country. The UN International School served as a backdrop for the interviews and students helped with potato recipe preparations during the live segments. The Integrated Media Tour reached 22.4 million consumers in total.
Online video hosting sites, such as YouTube, Google Video, Veho, MySpace, Revver, Yahoo Video and more, were utilized to stretch the reach of nutrition messaging during the integrated satellite tour.
A full-page food feature used the International Year of the Potato celebration to introduce the USPB’s campaign signature to consumers for the first time. The story was syndicated in many newspaper and online news Web sites, reaching a total of 2.7 million consumers to date. Newspapers include The Morning News, Spokesman-Review, Nashville Pride, The Times Leader, Journal Inquirer, Michigan Chronicle, Ashland Independent, Times Record, Weekly Challenger, Charlotte Weekly, Muscatine Journal, Kenosha News, Village Times Herald, Providence Journal, Santa Clarita Signal, Lawton Constitution, Decatur Champion, Omaha World-Herald, Long Beach Press-Telegram, Pine Bluff Commercial, Rabbit Creek Journal and many more.
The Internet’s #1 destination for food and recipes, FoodNetwork.com, created a micro site featuring USPB recipes, the new campaign signature, nutrition and variety information, as well as the microwave mashed potato video vignette. More than 10 million unique visitors visit FoodNetwork.com monthly. A one-day homepage takeover and three-month banner advertising campaign drove traffic to the specially-designed site.
Four international recipes with original photography were created and distributed to newspapers nationwide: Irish Potato Bread, Peruvian Potato and Mango Ceviche, Indian Kootu Curry and Red Cooking Pork and Potatoes from China. You can find these delicious new recipes and more information about the International Year of the Potato by visiting www.potatounderground.com.
New Brochure to Inspire Foodservice Chefs - The USPB's new foodservice brochure, "POTATOES...More Fresh Ideas for Menu Innovation", is hot off the presses. Designed to inspire chefs and restaurateurs to add new potato items to their menus, the brochure features some of the best ideas from the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) chef seminars. Direct mail, distribution at foodservice meetings, and banner ads on popular foodservice web sites are key ways the USPB distributes this brochure. To view or download the brochure go to www.potatogoodness.com and click on the foodservice button.
U.S. Frozen Potatoes Gain Markets in Indonesia, Canada, and Malaysia - A restaurant chain in Indonesia recently switched to serving 100% US frozen potato products, plus adding several new items. These switches occurred after the USPB’s representative repeatedly met with the company and provided detailed information on the many different potato products available from the US and addressed concerns about cost and profitability. The rep also offered technical assistance with training the restaurant’s staff in proper storage, handling and preparation, plus cooperative promotional support where needed. The Amigos Restaurant, which was previously only serving ¼” straight cuts of Canadian origin, now serves crinkle cuts, wedges and basket weave cuts from the US. Average sales of frozen potatoes have increased by 35% since the introduction.
Ponderosa Restaurant, which was previously only serving crinkle cut from Canada now are happy to see their customers accepting their recently added varieties of US wedges and basket weave fries, in addition to crinkle cut. Ownership is delighted with the sales so far and confident that with the additional US cuts carried, “they should be able to achieve more incremental sales in the near future because of customers’ acceptance of US fries”.
Another chain, Hotshots, added an additional frozen potato item from the US. They are now serving hash browns along with shoestring, wedges, and twister fries to accompany their flame broiled burgers.
The retailer, Sogo food hall supermarkets, just introduced potato rounds to their selection of five other US frozen potato products. They now carry straight cut, crinkle cut, BBQ flavored wedges, fajita flavored straight cuts, hash browns and potato rounds in their six supermarkets.
Mercato Supermarket in Kuala Lumpur was carrying only one US frozen potato product, hash browns. The other cuts, such as shoe string and crinkle cut were from competitive origins (mainly Belgium and the Netherlands). Subsequently, resulting from repeated visits by the USPB representative with the aim to increase the number of US produced potato products, we were pleased to learn Mercato was willing to carry three (3) additional potato products from the US; namely straight cut, tater rounds and hash brown shreds, in addition to their regular hash brown. As part of the agreement, an in-store promotion was conducted to support their increased interest in selling US potato products .
Items for Potato Bytes? - If you would like to submit an item or announce an upcoming event in Potato Bytes, or if you have a story idea for the Valley Potato Grower magazine, please call (218) 773-3633 or send an e-mail to communication@nppga.org.
