Potandon Produce LLC in Idaho Falls, ID, the largest marketer of fresh table stock potatoes in the United States, has been at the cutting edge of new variety development since its introduction of Klondike Rose potatoes over a decade ago.

This year, the company is launching two new potato varieties with some novel characteristics. They are called Klondike Royale and Smiley.

Klondike Rose was “heralded as the first significant new potato variety in nearly over 20 years which brought a much needed excitement to the category, said Ralph Schwartz, vice president of marketing, sales and innovation, in a written statement to The Produce News.

“With an unrelenting vision, the company leaders sought out new and unique seed sources from across the globe before putting the full backing of the company and the Green Giant brand name behind Klondike Rose potatoes. This dedication and focus was the catalyst that helped propel Potandon into the national spotlight and still holds credence today as the company continues to delight consumers with a steady stream of flavorful and unique potato varieties,” he said in the statement.

“This fall, going into the fall selling season, one of our focuses as a company is going to be the introduction of several new items,” Schwartz told The Produce News in an interview Sept. 5. “We have a couple of fantastic new items that we want to break out into the marketplace.” They will be available about mid-October and will be feature at Potandon’s booth at PMA Fresh Summit in Anaheim, CA.

Potandon did some test marketing of Klondike Royale in some sections of the country last year, he said. This year, “we are going to go pretty mainstream on it” and there should be sufficient supplies “for part of the year.” Klondike Royale is a yellow-fleshed potato with a yellow skins, but the skin has purple marks on it that look like purple kisses.

To market the variety, “we have created a new advertising icon with coupe of cartoon girl fairies kissing the potatoes.”

They will be available in five-pound and 10-pound bags as well as a new three-pound standup pouch. The standup bag is a new design that “we started testing last year,” said Schwartz.

The yellow potato category has enjoyed great success recently, and Potandon expects to capitalize on that growth, he said. Sales increases for yellow potatoes have been on the order of 20 percent “year over year.”

The Smiley potato is a small round yellow-flesh potato with a variegated skin, partly red and partly yellow. “It looks like it has smiles all over the skin,” Schwartz said. “It only gets to be about a B size.” Potandon plans to market the product as “a kid-friendly potato” and is bringing back Green Giant’s “Little Sprout” character, which will be featured on the bag.

Smiley is “a fun potato. It tastes great, and it cooks easily,” Schwartz said. “We are hoping to generate some additional category excitement with these two launches,” he said.

Those and Potandon’s many other unique varieties of potatoes “are carefully managed by SunRain Varieties LLC, a privately held subsidiary of Potandon,” Schwartz said in the written statement.

The Potandon marketing team “works tirelessly to bring a high level of brand and item awareness to our customer base,” Schwartz said in the statement. This includes “clear and relevant point of sales materials” as well as informational sign kits, on-pack cross promotions, contests and sweepstakes, merchandising display pieces and other components that help keep a customer’s consumers informed.