Holidays should bring organic spud promotions
Industry reports ideal growing and harvesting seasons so far. Learn more in this week's organic produce crop report.
With the October calendar moving toward mid-month, potato growers throughout the country are finishing digging their fields and finalizing their storage data with preliminary reports indicating 2024 will be a pretty normal season.
In marketing jargon, that means supply and demand should be closely aligned, allowing for a solid market with ad pricing available for multiple options throughout the 2024/25 season. For organic potatoes, a normal season means that there will be promotional opportunities, especially through the fall and winter holiday season and into 2025. Because organics represent a relatively small percentage of the overall crop, sellers are a bit wary about attaching their name to bold predictions until all the numbers are in and sales are underway.
“The 2024 crop looks solid with enough volume to meet demand,” said Eric Beck, director of marketing/key accounts for the Wada Farms marketing Group in Idaho Falls, Idaho, speaking specifically of the organic potato category. “The quality is on par with a normal crop and we expect pricing to also be on par.”
He noted that there are normal inflationary pressures on the production side that might lead to a slight increase in the market price, but Beck predicted that the FOB price should not vary significantly from the 2023/24 crop on most of the major varieties and pack options. He did say there could be more variance on specialty potatoes. “For Q4, we think there will be promotable opportunities especially on the bigger profile jumbo potatoes,” Beck said, with regard to organics.
He added the harvesting numbers have revealed a size profile favoring the larger count sizes encompassing 50-70 count cartons. Overall, Beck said the growing and harvesting seasons have been ideal, leading to a fairly predictable volume, which marketers appreciate as they go about setting up programs for the next year.
Turning his attention toward the consumption side of the equation, Beck said there has been “linear growth in the organic potato category,” which has led to some increases in production. He added that inflationary pressures over the past several years do register with organics, as trading organics for conventional at a lower price point is an easy remedy for consumers feeling an economic pinch. At the same time, he noted there is a solid set of consumers devoted to organics with the resources and the commitment to follow that path regardless of the price gap, which has led to that growth and expectations for continued growth.
Holiday potato outlook uncertain, hopeful
Lonnie Gillespie, executive vice president of operations for Farm Fresh Direct Monte Vista, Colorado, is also cautiously optimistic about the 2024 organic potato crop. “As of right now, there is good availability of organic reds, yellow and russets.”
Speaking on Oct. 7, she said there are promotional opportunities currently but she was reluctant to paint the holiday picture until all the numbers are in. Gillespie added that combining the current harvested numbers and pulling historical data from this date indicates that there will be good availability of all colors of organic potatoes moving forward.
Lonnie Gillespie, executive vice president of operations for Farm Fresh Direct Monte Vista, Colorado
She did offer the caveat that with organic potatoes you are dealing with a much smaller number so it is difficult to predict how long any one specific variety will be available for promotion. As occurs with many of the produce crops that are sold out of storage (such as organic apples), specific varieties or sizes could see outsized demand during the year, which tends to limit availability of that particular SKU as the season wears on, reducing the variety’s participation in promotions. “It’s always harder with organics to predict what will be available as we get deeper into the season,” Gillespie said.
As Farm Fresh Direct completes harvest of its Colorado potato production and gets those fields into commerce and storage, it was also pulling organic potatoes out of Washington to fill its orders.
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Crop report