POTATOES USA NEWS

Team Potato Fuels & Sweats Together in Virtual Bootcamp

Carissa Galloway leads the Team Potato bootcamp workout on May 22, 2021. The weekend of May 22-23, 2021, more than a dozen Team Potato members came together for a virtual workout session, followed by a potato dish designed to help athletes recover! Longtime Team Potato member, Carissa Galloway, led the workout. Galloway is a registered dietitian, certified personal trainer and has completed over 40 marathons. The 40-minute workout, designed for athletes from beginner to expert, was focused on exercises that could be done at home, specifically for strength areas runners should focus on. From squats to lunges, pushups and more, Team Potato members completed a challenging and fun workout together. After the workout, Galloway shared an easy post-workout recipe she developed, a Mediterranean Potato Hash. By featuring nutrient-dense potatoes along with other key ingredients, Team Potato members were able to fuel up and get back to exercising and living an active lifestyle. The bootcamp was the most recent Team Potato activity. Potatoes USA is always looking for new ways to engage the active Team Potato community, so stay tuned for the next event. In the meantime, everyone is welcome to join the fun at www.teampotato.com and become part of our community of potatoloving athletes.

Carissa Galloway leads the Team Potato bootcamp workout on May 22, 2021.

Malaysian Retailers Tout U.S. Potatoes

Store promotions help introduce customers to numerous potato varieties

Consumers in Malaysia are becoming more familiar with a wide range of U.S. potato varieties than they have in the past. Retail promotions conducted by Potatoes USA helped build a greater presence for U.S. fresh potatoes in Malaysian supermarkets after three major chains introduced four new varieties in November and December 2020. Major retailers Aeon, Maxvalue and Village Grocer launched red, purple, gold and fingerling potatoes during retail promotions. Despite the slow economy due to the pandemic, sales of the new varieties outperformed retailer expectations. Aeon allocated secondary displays for U.S. potatoes and produced its own POS (point of sale) materials to make the displays more attractive. This resulted in U.S. potato sales increasing 16 percent during the promotional period compared with the same time the prior year. A fourth company, Everrise supermarket chain, also participated in the promotions, featuring U.S. russets rather than colored varieties. Everrise reported record sales during its promotion, with U.S. potato sales increasing 25 percent.

COOKING DEMOS

A key factor in the promotions’ success were two virtual cooking demonstrations hosted by the Potatoes USA international agency in Malaysia that were streamed on the Facebook pages of the agency and retailers. The two events helped increase consumer awareness for the new products and improved customer confidence in how to prepare the potatoes. One of the videos demonstrated dishes using U.S. colored potato varieties, while the second cooking demonstration video concentrated on russets. Feedback from consumers indicated these cooking videos were useful, particularly because they could refer to them for directions when cooking. The Everrise supermarket chain even arranged for a local newspaper to highlight the cooking demonstration in an article. The promotions are part of the ongoing work Potatoes USA does to improve retailers’ knowledge and merchandising of U.S. fresh potatoes to spur new sales. In addition to promotions, Potatoes USA carries out merchandising visits to outlets of leading retail chains, and when allowed, retail meetings and seminars to help them maximize U.S. potato marketing. This has resulted in a stronger presence for U.S. potatoes at retail in Malaysia.