USPB Helps Deli Departments Promote Potatoes

USPB Helps Deli Departments Promote Potatoes

I’m KayDee Gilkey with the U.S. Potato Update.

The United States Potato Board has recently began providing opportunities to retail grocery stores’ in their deli prepared foods department to boost potato sales.

Don Ladhoff, Retail Program Consultant for the United States Potato Board speaks to two areas of potato promotion opportunities.

Ladhoff: “One is just the growth, the acceleration of potato sales in the deli. The food service industry has declared 2012 as The Year of the Potato and really sees a return to the menu for potatoes and that is one of the trends that the service deli has an opportunity to really draft off of.”

Ladhoff says the second area of opportunity is that deli counter prepared food promotion can be done with collaboration with retailers’ produce section which makes a win-win for both areas of the grocery store.

Ladhoff: “There is a greater percentage of shoppers that go through produce. They have more traffic. The deli would love to share some of that traffic. At the same time, the deli is a natural sampling environment. So we are working with retailers encouraging the deli to not only sample potato dishes but even to offer recipes for those dishes. And if the shopper wants to buy it ready made, it is there in the deli. If they decide they’d like to make it from scratch, there is that opportunity to go back and buy fresh potatoes.”

This was the U.S. Potato Update brought to you by the United States Potato Board, maximizing return on grower investment. I’m KayDee Gilkey on the Northwest Ag Information Network.