Shoppers buying in to smaller potato packs to minimise waste
Horticulture specialist Lorcan Bourke remarked that retailers view potatoes as a vital category in driving footfall, with 11% of all shopping trips featuring potatoes.
These trips contribute to 21% of all sales.
“When potatoes are included in the basket, grocery trips are worth a lot more than average shopping spends, highlighting the importance of the potato category to retailers,” Mr Bourke said in the latest edition of Food Alert, Bord Bia’s industry publication.
Mr Bourke’s observations were based upon the latest Kantar Worldpanel review of the potato category in Ireland. It noted a marked change and “internationalising” of food tastes.
Kantar noted a rise in “little & often” shopping. Choices that appeal to modern shoppers around convenience, pack size, and promotion were all highlighted as the key modern consumer behaviours influencing the potato category.
“Potatoes were deemed a vital category, with retailers driving footfall to higher spending baskets — the key to high-value shopping trips,” said Mr Bourke.
“In total, 105m packs of potatoes were sold in 2013, meaning that potatoes were bought once every 0.6 second in Irish retailers, which translates into 1.58m households purchasing potatoes annually.”
Kantar noted five grocery market trends. These included: The growth of discounter retailing; the premiumisation of product ranges; the importance of vouchers; the growth of private label; and the impact of special offers.
The value of the potato market was up to €185m in 2013, largely as a result of price increases, although lesser volumes being sold per trip has taken value out of the market, with shoppers buying into smaller pack sizes.
The strongest performance in varieties comes from Roosters — winning new shoppers and increased frequency of purchase over other varieties. In value share, Roosters accounted for almost 50% of sales and more than 50% in volume terms.
“The key challenge highlighted across all retailers was to address the decline in volume per trip,” said Mr Bourke.
Volumes of potatoes sold were down across the whole category, and there is an opportunity of €21m more in sales terms if the sector can grow youngers shoppers to the market average.
“Looking at just smaller households, it was noted that both pre and young family purchasers buy more volumes than empty nesters of pasta and rice.”
Meanwhile, in a recent survey by Agri Aware, almost 90% of consumers said they would welcome legislation protecting farmers against below-cost selling.
The study also found 79% of the public consider quality to be more important than price.
