From the Desk of Chairman Steve Elfering

April 30, 2025

As the 2025 Chairman of Potatoes USA, I first want to say what an honor it is to be a representative of such a strong, collaborative industry. As your Chairman, I plan to share my experiences and insights each quarter to help shed more light on the ways Potatoes USA is using our grower assessments and grant funding to strengthen the demand for potatoes. With shifts in global production, strains in agriculture trade, and higher expectations on growers for production efficiencies, I believe open conversation is especially important right now.

Potatoes USA’s purpose, as supported by the board, is to strengthen demand for potatoes. I can confidently say that the Potatoes USA staff are as passionate as the growers about our business and are committed to maximizing funding as they implement a wide variety of strategic programming on our behalf. Regardless of where we are in the cycle of headwinds or tailwinds, whether people are dining out or cooking at home, or balancing imports and exports, the team thinks proactively to drive the best results for the industry.

A key focus of Potatoes USA is strengthening the demand for U.S. potatoes abroad. I recently attended the annual international representatives meeting, where we met with marketing agencies from nine countries/regions to set the strategy in each region for the coming fiscal year.

Like the Potatoes USA staff, the international agencies show an unwavering passion for U.S. potatoes. We are not just another client to them. They are thinking creatively and strategically about how to best position U.S. potatoes in their countries and are eager to achieve measurable success. As we know, international competition is growing. Meeting with these teams and hearing about what their markets look like, it’s clear that it’s so important that we have teams on the ground, people who are experts in the culture and nuance in each country, to fight for us. They speak directly with consumers, retailers, and foodservice operators, then work with Potatoes USA to get what they need to put U.S. potatoes in the best possible position to maintain and increase demand. I see a huge ROI on these international efforts.

In addition to individual meetings by country or region, all the international agencies and staff came together for three mornings. It felt a little like being at a United Nations table; the collaboration was enthusiastic and productive. We learned a lot about how things are changing and what’s trending in different regions to plan how we can best market U.S. potatoes for their specific needs.

For example, in Japan, they’ve created “Baseball fries,” a pack of waffle-cut fries, because of the strong connection between Japanese players and Major League Baseball. This ties U.S. potatoes to a trusted, admired American entity and provides a specifically American experience when consumers are shopping for fries.

Looking ahead, Potatoes USA and the international agencies will be focusing on how we can best message the differentiators of U.S. potatoes over the competition. Through research, the goal is to narrow in on why people will choose American potatoes so we can embed that messaging into all marketing efforts, showing the value of our potatoes and driving more sales.

Finally, I want to thank Travis Meacham, Dave Masser, and Hunter Gibbs for attending these meetings with me on behalf of the board. Grower representation at planning meetings like this is so important. First, it shows the agencies we care about and appreciate their work, and gives them firsthand perspectives. Second, it’s helpful for board members to bring what they learn back to the rest of the board and their regions to help increase awareness about all the great work happening on our behalf around the world.

Again, it’s an honor for me to do this work as your representative. If you have any questions about the international rep meetings or anything else, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me or the Potatoes USA staff. I look forward to sharing more in a few months.