The Idaho Potato Commission's annual Potato Lovers' Month display contest has become so successful, with so many stores participating, that it has become necessary to expand the promotion to eight weeks, rather than just four weeks in February.

Last year, demand for Idaho potatoes during the February promotion was so great it essentially reached the limit of the capacity of Idaho potato packing facilities to meet the demand. Therefore, for the 2015 Potato Lovers' Month, the contest period will be extended to eight weeks. It will start mid-January and continue into mid-March.

Seth PemslerPotato Lovers' Month, now in its 24th year, "has grown exponentially," said Seth Pemsler, vice president of retail for the Idaho Potato Commission. "It is now the largest display contest in all the U.S. in fruits and vegetables," and that success is expected to continue.  For 2015, "we will hopefully add some new customers, which we are always trying to do."

According to Frank Muir, president of the commission, Prior to 2005, the average number of displays for the annual Potato Lovers' Month display contest was 600. From 2006 to 2012, there were an average of 2,000 displays. "The last two years, we have averaged 4,500. A big part of that is we now have Walmart as a major partner in that event."

The commission will continue to work with Hormel as a partner for the Potato Lovers' Month promotion, Pemsler told The Produce News.

As an adjunct to the national contest, "we do individual contests with retailers," Pemsler said. "We go to retailers and say, 'If you convince your chain to participate, we will give you an internal contest,' and the retailer can still participate in the national contest," he said. "That will continue to expand."

Elaborating on the reason for extending the time period for the Potato Lovers' Month contest to eight  weeks, Pemsler said that the number of participating stores has increased so  much in the past two years that "our shippers can't pack that fast. We actually missed some opportunities this year" because there was not enough volume available to meet the additional demand. By expanding the promotion to eight weeks, "the Idaho shipping community can meet the increasing demand" generated by the Potato Lovers' Month promotions.

The Potato Lovers' Month promotion — and many other commission programs — couldn't be executed without the field team, Pemsler said.

Among the commission's other retail programs is "our category management initiative, our new data initiative, which is very helpful to retailers. But the way we execute all these things requires our field team," he said.

The field team consists of people who "grew up doing exactly what the people they are calling on do," Pemsler continued. "All of our field people — retail and foodservice — come from the industry. " On the retail side they have been produce directors, "and they have been distributors on the foodservice side, so they have phenomenal knowledge and credibility. They act as consultants to their counterparts."

The commission is giving increased attention to the Hispanic marketplace in its retail programs. "We did extensive research to identify and understand the Hispanic consumer, and what we learned was the Hispanic consumers are very brand conscious," and when it comes to produce "they are extremely brand conscious because there are so few bands," Pemsler said. The Hispanic consumers "skew very heavily toward the perception that a brand is better and Idaho is the best brand."

To make retailers that have stores with Hispanic demographics aware of those facts, the commission "created a presentation that explains what Hispanic consumers are looking for and how the retailers are missing opportunities if they are not making sure Idaho potatoes are present and visible in those stores, he said.