The Tasteful Selections brand makeover was met with enthusiasm at Fresh Summit, says Russell Wysocki, president and CEO of RPE Produce, Bancroft, Wis.
RPE Produce is the exclusive sales and marketing partner of Arvin, Calif.-based Tasteful Selections.
“We love how we are going to market,” Wysocki says. Tasteful Selections is offering five different seasoning options for its bite-sized potatoes, and also is offering new packing for its mini-potatoes in sleeves.
We are really excited about our seasoning packs,” he says, noting a new seasoning company has delivered outstanding taste.
“The company did a great job working with us and trying to bring different things to the marketplace, trying to be able to meet our customer and consumer needs,” he says. Every retail customer wants to brand their way into the store and Tasteful Selections and RPE can bring multiple opportunities for different styles, he says.
“The best thing about our program is we are growing potatoes every single day and harvesting 250 plus days a year, planting 250 days a year, so (product) rarely over two to four months old,” he says.
“So it’s a fresh potato coming into market, a new potato each and every time and rotating it through,” he says.
The Tasteful Selections line of small potatoes is grown in a 250-mile radius of Bakersfield, Calif., with changes in elevation and season providing continuing availability. RPE also has potato operations in Wisconsin Colorado, Idaho, and Washington.
“If there is a potato to be sold we are doing it; we have all the organic, the fingerlings, all the specialties and obviously all the commodities, the russets, reds, and yellows,” he says.
RPE also is exclusive marketer of potatoes and onions for Agri-Pack, Pasco, Wash., and Wysocki says that has allowed RPE business to grow in the onion market and better serve its customers.
