Potato sales soar above pre-pandemic demand

Potato sales continue to perform well at retail compared with pre-pandemic conditions, says Kayla Dome, global marketing manager for retail at Potatoes USA.

“If we are looking at over the last five years, (potato sales) are still higher than they were prior to the pandemic,” she said. 

Considering both fresh and processing potatoes, the split between foodservice and retail demand is about 50/50, Dome said. Before 2020, that ratio was heavier to foodservice, but the pandemic tilted sales toward retail. The foodservice rebound is still unfolding, she said.
“We’re seeing a lot of the food service come back as places are starting to open back up,” she said. Full-service restaurants were hit harder by the pandemic than quick-serve restaurants, and Dome said that those restaurants are rebounding.

“Those (full-service) restaurants are the ones that are coming back a little bit more slowly, but they are coming back,” she said.

On the retail side, Potatoes USA wants to keep consumers engaged with eating potatoes at home even as the world opens back up.
Recently, more consumers are starting to buy potatoes in smaller pack sizes, Dome said. “That was something we really started to see prior to 2020, and then it kind of reverted as everybody was panic-buying,” she said. Now, consumers are again showing interest in smaller pack sizes, including petite potatoes and potato fingerlings.

“Not to discount the bigger bags — they definitely still have a place — but those smaller pack sizes are really adding that incremental growth for those retailers out there,” she said. 

The five-pound bag of russets is still probably the largest volume-driving category for retailers, but stores are selling more of the smaller pack sizes compared with before the pandemic.

Based on sales data from market research company IRI, top performing retailers are those that carry the most potato stock-keeping-units.

Those best-performing retailers are diversifying across all potato types, from russets, reds, yellows and whites. In addition to that, those retailers are stocking petite, purple and other potato options.

“We’re really focused on our merchandising best practices, so we are just really helping retailers understand how to put potatoes on the shelf, and how to make sure that they're optimizing their sales in that category,” she said. 

Potatoes USA is also helping consumers understand the value of potatoes.

“So, if consumers are buying a five-pound bag, how can we help retailers help (consumers) consume the whole bag before there is spoilage,” she said.

Nutrition is also a focus of Potatoes USA’s marketing efforts, Dome said, and that means helping consumers understand that potatoes are a vegetable and contain many nutrients.

About 70% of consumers buy potatoes at full price, she said, and that means shoppers may still buy potatoes even with the inflation in prices experienced this year.

“As far as potatoes that are going in grocery stores, we really haven't seen a huge decline in sales (because) of the increased price,” she said. What’s more, potatoes have not increased as much as chicken and other meat products, which are up as much as 30%.

Frozen potatoes are a category that has done well since the pandemic, Dome said.

“Prior to 2020, the people that bought frozen potatoes are very different from the people that bought fresh potatoes,” she said. “What we've seen is really a crossover in that consumer, so those fresh potato consumers are still buying fresh potatoes, but they're actually buying a lot more frozen potatoes, as well, to really help with that prep time in the kitchen; kind of cut down that time allotted for cooking a meal.” 

In addition, fresh customers are coming back for repeat purchases of frozen. “(Frozen) has been a really exciting category to kind of watch and see how it changed over the last couple of years. “Consumers keep coming back,” Dome said. While the range of frozen potato products is large, she said the frozen fresh-roasted potato is one category showing bigger sales.

One thing that might be attracting consumers to frozen is the ability to spell out the nutrients in the potatoes on the consumer packaging. “You can’t really do that if you’re buying a fresh potato on the shelf,” Dome said.

For online grocery purchases, Dome said there is an increase in perishable purchases online, as some consumers are beginning to have a better experience with that sector. Retailers have addressed search functions and other issues in their platforms that frustrated consumers, she said.

“Search engine optimization really helps increase those sales, and so they have seen an increase in perishable sales and an increase in consumers repeat-purchasing in that segment,” Dome said.