Bag it up: Consumers love packaged potatoes, Maine growers say

Maine potato growers say shoppers perceive consumer bags — especially the 5-pound size — as a convenient, value-priced way to purchase potatoes.

Up to 70% of the potatoes Cambridge Farms, Presque Isle, Maine, sells are in consumer packs, said Ken Gad, owner and president.

Most of the 4-, 5- or 8-pound bags are private-label potatoes, but the company is proud of its own Patriot brand as well, Gad said. The Patriot bag “pops” on store shelves and makes it easy to discern whether the contents are russet, white, red or yellow tubers, he said.

Most retail customers of Presque Isle-based Maine Farmers Exchange order 5-pound packages, said Bob Davis, vice president. Sometimes they’ll even ask for 3- or 4-pound bags.

Consumers used to buy 10- or 20-pound bags, but demand for the larger sizes has diminished, he said.

“People don’t eat that many fresh potatoes like they used to,” Davis said.

At Green Thumb Farms Inc., Fryeburg, Maine, 65% of sales to retailers are consumer bags, said director Mike Hart.

“The tried-and-true size in New England is the 5-pound bag,” he said.

But the company also has seen an increase in its 1.5-pound steam-in-the-bag program, which Hart said is typically an impulse item.

Learn: More about potatoes from PMG

Green Thumb Farms also offers a popular 2-pound bag, which it rotates from season to season. This year the golden globe variety will be featured in the 2-pounders.

The company also plans to launch a 2-pound bag of oxford fingerling potatoes.

Some of the demand for packaged potatoes is a residual effect of the COVID-19 pandemic, when some shoppers were reluctant to pick up fruits or vegetables that other consumers had touched on store shelves, said Noah Winslow, who handles sales and marketing for Irving Farms Marketing Inc., Caribou, Maine.

Irving Farms Marketing offers 5-, 8- and 10-pound bags as well as packages sold by count for foodservice customers, he said.