The Ontario Potato Board wants to know why shoppers are
buying fewer potatoes, so has hired Dr. Martin Gooch of the Value Chain Management
Centre and George Mitges and Associates of Vineland to interview 1,000
shoppers.
They have already interviewed 210 and find that most know
there are many different potato varieties, but 64 per cent couldn’t identify
the ones that are best for baking, boiling or mashing.
The potato board wants the consultants to help them identify
the attributes or products that shoppers are willing to pay premium prices to
purchase.
Their challenge is that fresh potato consumption has
declined by 40 per cent per capita over the last 20 years.
The Canadian Agricultural Adaptation Council is helping to
fund the project which involves Loblaws Companies Limited and Downey Farms.
I can tell them what annoys my wife about fresh potatoes grown in Ontario. The quality is poor.
She paid a premium for Green Giant brand fresh potatoes when they were imported from the United States because the quality was excellent. There were no cuts, no bruises, no brown-rot areas when she cut them open.
Then Green Giant began sourcing potatoes in Ontario, and the quality plunged.
There are, no doubt, many other discoveries the consultants will make during their research, but unless and until the Ontario Potato Board is willing and able to vastly improve the quality of fresh potatoes its members market, the gains will be small and ephemeral.
