More On Consumer Trends for Potatoes

More On Consumer Trends for Potatoes. I’m Greg Martin with today’s Line On Agriculture.

Yesterday we began a talk with Maeve Webster, the Director for Datassential who looks at consumer trends and how they can affect things like colored potato production.

WEBSTER: So let’s start off with fingerlings. Right? Fingerlings have been around for a while and the good news is with consumers a huge number are interested in colored potatoes which are often how operators will menu fingerlings on their menu. So nearly 80% of consumers say they are interested in seeing more colored potatoes whether it’s purple, red skinned, gold, etc. Now if you have purple mashed potatoes, that might be a little bit much for consumers.

She says if you mix in other colored fingerlings it does become more interesting to consumers. And she notes that fingerlings popularity is really growing.

WEBSTER: 35% more operators now are menuing fingerlings on their menus somewhere. Huge growth over the last 4 years. Over 80% of consumers want to see fingerlings on the menu. They’re interested in fingerlings. It’s a new type of potato. It’s a new way to enjoy something that they’re familiar with but it’s not the same old - same old.

There is a caveat to the fingerling story according to Webster and that is even with all the excitement...

WEBSTER: Despite these figures, only 4% of all restaurants currently have fingerlings on the menu. So think about that. 81% of consumers would like to see fingerlings but only 4% of restaurants actually leveraged fingerlings on their menu.

That’s today’s Line On Agriculture. I’m Greg Martin on the Ag Information Network.