Potato retail sales remain strong in Q3
Potato retail sales remained strong for the quarter from July to September 2023, up 9.5 percent from the same period a year ago. All categories of potatoes saw increases in dollar sales.
Despite a slight decrease (1.7 percent) in total volume sales, fresh volume sales remained stable compared to a year ago (down 0.4 percent), led by increases in yellow (3.3 percent), red (2.8 percent) and fingerling potatoes (3.9 percent). Regional fresh volume growth was led by the Southeast (2.5 percent) and California (1.8 percent). Fresh price per pound was $1.12, up 6.3 percent from last year. Overall volume sales remain above pre-pandemic levels.
The most significant increases in dollar sales for the quarter occurred in canned (45.1 percent), frozen (31.8 percent) and instant (17.1 percent) potatoes. Deli-prepared sides (3.1 percent) and canned potatoes (63.3 percent) also both increased in volume sales. Despite the large increase in volume and dollar sales of canned potatoes, this category makes up just 1 percent of total volume of sales. Of the categories seeing declines in volume, refrigerated (7.2 percent), instant (6 percent) and frozen (5.6 percent) potatoes were the most significant.
For fresh potatoes, all pack sizes except those greater than 10 pounds (down 29.9 percent) increased significantly in dollar sales. Ten-pound packs increased significantly in dollar sales (32.9 percent) but fell in volume (down 2.9 percent). The largest dollar sales increases were in five-pound (31.5 percent) and 10-pound (32.9 percent) bags. However, volume sales fell for all sizes larger than eight pounds. Volume sales increased for less than two-pound (1.3 percent) and five-pound (3.7 percent) packages.
Circana compiles these figures by working directly with retailers.
