TRADE AND MARKETING Taste needs commitment Products should be kept exclusive. This is one of the important lessons learnt at the recently held BioImpuls Symposium. The Dutch organic potato market is still small. Vegetables and fruit are doing much better. To some extent, this is due to effective marketing. Taste is a selling point, but it needs commitment, this is what the Tasty Tom success story demonstrates. T he Symposium was kicked off by Ton Janssen. Janssen is the driving force behind Tasty Tom, a deliciously sweet tomato, which put the tomato back on the map during the days of the ‘Wasserbombe’ (German for water bomb). For fifteen consecutive years, Janssen has managed to reach and increase in his turnover. For this purpose, he has drawn up a number of mechanisms from which the organic potato sector can learn quite a lot. Janssen emphasises that one must make sure to be the only one with that tasty variety. ‘For that purpose, you must make proper arrangements with your seed supplier. The result of our exclusiveness in northwestern Europe is that we pay more for our seed, but it also means that we have exclusivity.’ Only then can you assure quality and manage your supply throughout the year, Janssen points out. What is more, you must make detailed arrangements with the growers group. ‘This cannot be on a casual basis and goes hand-in-hand with hefty penalties if growers fail to meet their obligations’, Janssen explains. In addition to free publicity promotion, it is important to advertise a great deal to help the salesman on the shop floor to sell the Tasty Tom products to the consumer. To this end, we have made a wide range of merchandise: from chopping boards – a neat way of having customers taste the tomatoes, to Tasty Tom bags. Growers pay 5000 in euros promotion annually for each hectare of Tasty Tom, of which around 50 have been sown. On average, a tomato grower pays a contribution ‘Agreements are not made on a casual basis and go hand-in-hand with hefty penalties if growers fail to meet their obligations’, Tasty Tom’s Janssen voices. for promotion of 289 euros per hectare. Janssen also believes that one must make choices where markets are concerned Not everyone needs to have your product on their shelves. Tasty Tom is only available in Albert Heijn supermarkets and in specialised greengrocer shops. ’This is the way to keep your product exclusive and there is no need to sell at record low prices, because that is deadly for a high-quality product.’ According to Janssen, an exclusive product must earn more than the big, average, mass product and it should stand out in the market. It follows that your potatoes must look better and taste better than those of your competitors. As for their appearance, the randomly-bought organic table potatoes at the Symposium did not really impress the attendants. The quality is often not up to the mark, which is a deadly sin, in Janssen’s view. Demand for organic chips not yet strong ocessing industry can perhaps tap new markets. McCain’s Leo van Marion put the case for this subject at the BioImpuls Symposium. His argument was that the quality of organic potatoes should be comparable to egularly-grown potatoes. ’The McCain image is that chips are long and that should be no different for organic products’ an Marion reasons firmly. This year, McCain is growing a total of 40 hectares of chip potatoes of the Sarpo Mira variety. To grow these potatoes in a financially-attracTo grow organic potatoes in a financially-attractive way, McCain’s Leo van Marion says that they should yield at least 45 tons a hectare. 26 Potato World 2012 • number 3 Pagina 25
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