US Potato Board Highlights Accomplishments at Summer Meeting

DENVER—(August 16, 2007) At its 2007 Summer Meeting in Madison, WI, the United States Potato Board (USPB) shared the results of its Fiscal Year 2007 (FY2007) demand building strategies with the potato industry. The USPB maximizes return on grower investment by expanding markets, increasing the usage of potatoes and potato products, improving the competitive position of potatoes and presenting a favorable image of potatoes to the public.

To fulfill these core strategies, the USPB follows a Long Range Plan in which goals are identified for each of the following program areas: Nutrition Campaign, Foodservice, Fresh, Frozen, Dehy, Chip-Stock and Chips and Seed. Significant accomplishments were attained in each of these programs. Here are the highlights of measured successes the USPB has posted on behalf of industry promotion:

Messaging from the Nutrition Campaign reached 233 million consumers. New convenience cooking concepts, nutrition research and “positive potato” stories were presented in 21 meetings with leading consumer magazines and cable television’s Food Network. In-depth presentations on the Glycemic Index were given to 81 key food editors and other nutrition influentials, and nutrition research projects to document potatoes’ contribution to satiety (results due late summer 2007) and blood pressure (results due spring 2008) have been launched.

Foodservice has been engaged for a second year running with a custom seminar held by the USPB at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in St. Helena, CA. Twenty-six executive research and development chefs from leading chains, representing 32,600 restaurants and $23 billion in annual sales, attended this event.

As a result of participating in these seminars, Panera Bread, Corner Bakery Café, Cheesecake Factory, Chili’s and Whole Foods have each added new potato items to their menus. Subway is also currently testing two new, and very promising, potato side dishes.

Visitors to www.healthypotato.com have made 50,000 downloads of nutrition and recipe brochures, while over 2.1 million Impressions were made from 57 article placements in leading foodservice publications.

Fresh potato promotion continues to improve with the Best-in-Class (BIC) program. Retail partner chains achieved a 1.3 percent increase in volume and increased sales revenue of 10.24 percent by implementing the USPB best practices. The top BIC retailer actually increased volume by 5.2 percent and sales revenue increased 15.7 percent. Nine BIC and four category management training sessions were conducted for State Organizations and fresh shippers.

The Fresh Demand Working Group was
 formed December 2006 in conjunction with United Potato Growers of America, the State Organizations and fresh shippers. This group is working on a nutrition messaging project for use across the entire US potato industry.

Twenty-one convenient fresh recipes were created and tested. Consumer recipe cards have been produced and demonstrations are taking place in over 5,000 grocery stores. These recipes are displayed on www.uspotatoes.com and www.healthypotato.com.

Twenty-four retail chains in Hong Kong, Malaysia, Singapore and Taiwan have introduced new varieties of US fresh potatoes, while thirteen retail chains have added new packaging or recipes in Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan.

In the Frozen program, seven restaurant chains in China and Mexico switched to US frozen products. In Japan, South Korea, China, ASEAN and Mexico, 90 new foodservice menu items were launched, and in these same countries, 26 new retailers and nine new channels began carrying or using US frozen potato products. The new channels include theaters, shopping malls, a home shopping network, ball parks, hyper-mart deli shops, a café-wine bar, and a beerhouse and pizza chain. Additional frozen products were added to 27 hotel restaurant institutions in China, Mexico and ASEAN.

The dehy sector is experiencing continued growth. There are 133 new dehy products in development in Mexico, Japan, South Korea and Indonesia, while 20 new dehy products have been launched in Mexico, Japan, the Philippines and Indonesia. There are three new importers of US dehy in Mexico and Japan and three Private Voluntary Organizations (PVOs) have included US dehy in their applications. A US bakery dehy applications project has been initiated with the American Institute of Baking.

The 2007 Chip Seminar witnessed a record attendance of over 210 industry members. Variety trials are ongoing and a new research project studying the Zebra defect is underway. The chip sector is also testing the commercialization of alternative products that were developed from a fiscal year 2006 project.

Three new buyers from Thailand and the Philippines are importing US chip-stock. Additionally, 12 chip-stock samples were sent to manufacturers in Thailand, the Philippines and Malaysia.

US seed varieties were exhibited at two international trade shows, and two new US seed growers are now exporting. Variety trials are taking place in Uruguay, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Brazil and Kuwait. An import protocol for US seed with Honduras was signed in March, 2007, and market exploration visits were made to Sri Lanka, Nicaragua and Uraguay.

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David Fairbourn is Manager, Industry Communications & Policy, at the United States Potato Board in Denver. The mission of the USPB is to increase demand for potatoes and potato products through an integrated promotion program, thereby providing US producers with expanding markets for their production. David can be contacted at 303-369-7783 or david.fairbourn@uspotatoes.com. For complete information about the programs, ROI results, and resources and tools available to all members of the industry through the USPB, please visit www.uspotatoes.com. The United States Potato Board – “Maximizing Return on Grower Investment”.