b'Marketing and Communications Annual Summaryby Ted Kreis, NPPGA Marketing and Communications Directoral planted acres, but nearly 20% were excited to bring in Food Network starnot harvested.Yellow prices have also Molly Yeh for a personal appearance atreactedpositively,up$6to$10per the Crop Expo.cwt. compared to last year.Advertising in national trade publica-Seed and chip growers on non-irrigat- tions (both print and digital) contin-ed land had similar losses to the fresh uestobeanimportantpartofourgrowers. Process growers got most of marketing plan.The digital portion istheir potatoes harvested but were hit making up a larger and larger portionwith a smaller size profile and lower of the budget.Nearly all of our adsyields,just like much of the rest of the target produce buyers; we do not tar-nation.get consumers through media becauseour small budget would make it inef-TotalpotatoproductioninNorth fective,insteadwerelyonPotatoesDakota for 2019 was just under 21 mil- USAtoreachthoseconsumers.lioncwt.,down11.7%comparedto Speaking of Potatoes USA, we are par-AstheMarketingandCommunication last year.Total Minnesota potato pro- ticipatingwiththeirPotatoDirector for NPPGA, I prepare a summary duction at just over 18 million cwt., Performancecampaignbyhavingto present to our growers at our annual down3.6%comparedtolastyear. beenasponsorattheGrandForksmeeting each February.Since many grow- Total US potato production was 422.4 Marathon this past September and willers do not actually attend this meeting, I million cwt., down nearly 10 million againattheupcomingFargothought it would be a good idea to make cwt. or -2.2% compared to 2018. Marathon in May.this summary available in this issue ofthe Valley Potato Grower magazine.The Trade shows are again a major part of Communications:Imanagethreereport is divided into two parts, just as my our marketing program. We display at websites,PotatoBowl.com,RedRiverjobtitle;MarketingandCommuni- three trade shows that draw national ValleyPotatoes.comandNPPGA.org.cations.So here is that same report, only audiences.TheProduceMarketing ThePotatoBowlsiteisasitstitleslightly modified to make it current for the Association Fresh Summit which is for infers, everything about Potato Bowl;magazines later release date: thefreshretailmarket,theNational RedRiverValleyPotatoes.comexclu-Restaurant Association Show which is sivelypromotesthevalleysfreshMarketing: This years red potato crop forthefoodservicemarketandthe industrywhileNPPGA.orgcontinueswas nearly 40% smaller than last year Potato Expo where we have a booth to to serve as an information source forduetonearly1,700fewerplanted promote our regions potato breeding ourassociation.Ialsomaintainacrescoupledwithlargelossesfrom programs. We also attended the New FacebookpagesforPotatoBowlandprevented harvest. Shippers adjusted YorkProduceShow&Conference Red River Valley Potatoes.theirpricingaccordinglyandhave which draws buyers from the heavilyheldredprices$10to$15perhun- populated northeast.We also debuted We are entering our 10th year usingdredweight(cwt.)higherthanlast our new backlit tradeshow display at Constant Contact to format and deliv-year. the PMA Fresh Summit.The reverse erourweeklynewsletterPotatoside of that display unit was on display Bytestoover800subscribers.ItisThetrendtowardsmoreyellowskin onthestageofourChairmansand opened and read by over 40% of thosepotatoes continued with 764 addition- MSAbanquet and also in our booth at subscriberswhichisactuallymorethe International Crop Expo.We were than20%higherthanthenational4 POTATO GROWER MARCH 2020'