Japanese Can't Get Enough of U.S. Frozen Fries

A Japanese foodservice chain with 179 outlets, Steak Ken, is providing their customers with unlimited U.S. potato wedges at their all-you-can eat salad bar. A representative from Steak Ken participated last fall in the United States Potato Board’s Field to Fork reverse trade mission and learned more about the consistency and high quality of U.S. frozen potato products.USPB International Marketing Manager Susan Weller shares that Steak Ken was using U.S. potato wedges as a side dish but after the reverse trade mission made U.S. wedges a successful option at their salad bar.Weller: “They wanted to increase their customer satisfaction and awareness of U.S. potatoes — and that is exactly what it did. We had a promotion with them and it increased usage up to 275 percent in one month. They decided to continue offering this. It was an all you can eat U.S. fries salad bar at specific times. Basically there were so many different customers that enjoyed this. A lot of families with children and groups of friends that in just two months 55 metric tons of U.S. potato wedges were purchased.”