TRADE AND MARKETING American small packagers are looking for niches in the market Pro Health is innovating for business in the long term Pro Health is a business situated just outside Dallas, in the village of Carrollton. They package over 120,000 tons of home-grown table potatoes annually. According to Alan Bradshaw, who – as the person responsible for the development of new products – travels the length and breadth of the country, innovation is very important in the current shrinking table-potato market. ‘We need to keep on generating new ideas and present them to our current and future customers. This is important in order to be able to continue to work together as long as possible’, Bradshaw explains. ‘The origin of company is in Idaho. That’s where the Larson family, led by Brandon Larsen’s father, the owner of Pro Health, grows potatoes on Larsen Farm Idaho. Brandon started to grow potatoes in Nebraska and Texas a few years ago. In 2008, he started in Delhart, Texas. You can grow beautiful table potatoes on these sandy soils.’ Today, father and son together are growing table potatoes again on two farms of 12,140 hectares and 2,000 hectares respectively, making. a total of 14,000 hectares. ‘We’re looking for growing areas where we can work on virgin soil with an elaborate crop rotation scheme. That gives the best results. We package all our potatoes ourselves in order to get complete control over the marketing of the Russet Norkotah variety. This year, we plan to start growing redskinned and yellow-fleshed potatoes in Texas. ‘This type of potato is getting more and more popular in a shrinking potato market. With this expansion, we’re able to offer our customers a wider range of varieties’, Bradshaw emphasises. Perfectly clean An important distinctive characteristic of Pro Health is the supply of perfectly-cleaned potatoes. ‘It’s our view that the best way of eating a potato is in the skin, but then that potato must be perfectly clean. We’ve developed a unique cleaning procedure. We first wash them until they’re clean right down into the eyes. We then place the tubers under an ozone shower that cleans the potato to perfection. This process doesn’t leave any traces and prepares the potatoes for optimal electronic inspection and grading. This pure washing system gave us an advantage in the market, certainly when food safety It’s Pro Health’s view that the best way of eating a potato is in the skin, but then that potato must be perfectly clean. became an important issue for our buyers. A big advantage of this presentation is that the potatoes sell faster, because the consumer buys with his eyes. So it’s very important that you supply consistent quality throughout the year and don’t change the presentation. As we have full controll of the cultivation at our branches in Idaho and in Texas, we can do just that.’ What becomes clear in this modern building is that innovation is important. For example, all the machinery in this very light and spacious building is made of stainless steel. ‘This contributes towards our attitude to hygiene. And a large group of our buyers such as the HEB, Public and Safeway supermarket chains think this very important’, Bradshaw emphasises. QR code on quicklock Bradshaw tells me that the packaging also refers to the potato field in Texas were the potatoes were grown. ‘And we print the QR code on the quicklock of all our packaging. When you scan this code with your smartphone, you see a picture of the field where the potatoes were grown. We take these pictures during the growing season with a special GPS camera. Because the consumer is now on your site, you can immediately show them your special offers. Of course, after first having them fill out their personal details. We can then communicate directly with these customers or offer them a special price for their next bag of potatoes. This means we take direct advantage of the trend for the locally-grown food’, Bradshaw explains. Create extra value ‘We’re looking for growing areas where we can work on virgin soil with an elaborate crop rotation scheme’, Alan Bradshaw explains. Bradshaw expects the consumption of table potatoes to drop in the coming years. By investing more in marketing and by offering other potato-related products you may be able to expand again. ‘We’re still facing plenty of challenges’, Bradshaw laughs. ‘For example, we’re busy examining variet18 Potato World 2014 • number 4 Pagina 57
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