ORLANDO, Fla. - Promoting gold potatoes could grow the entire potato category, says John Pope, vice president of sales and marketing for Houston-based Mountain King Potatoes.
“We’re trying to improve category profitability by promoting gold potatoes,” says Pope. “Gold potatoes right now comprise about 15% of the category; we feel like if we could push it up to 50% of the sales, it is going to grow whole commodity category about 29%,” he says, noting that yellow potatoes are trending up in sales in five-pound, three-pound and 1.5-pound bags.
“Customers pay more for yellows; we’d like to see them displayed more and promoted more,” he says.
Mountain King is running a “Go for the Gold” retail selling contest looking for the highest year-over- year increase for retail gold potato sales.
Mountain King also is highlighting its medley pack of baby gold and baby red potatoes in 1.5-pound bags, in addition to promoting Butter Russet and Butter Red potatoes.
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