Potatoes Around The World #8

Idaho Dehy Products Sampled at Mexico Expo
Field Days: IPC Reverse Trade Mission Hosts Global Visitors

Idaho Dehy Products Sampled at Mexico Expo

The Idaho Potato Commission successfully marketed and sampled Idaho dehy products at Mexico’s Food Technology Summit & Expo in September 2017, together with Potatoes USA. The summit featured more than 350 leading suppliers of ingredients, additives and solutions for the Latin America food and beverage industry.

“Food Tech was a really good show for dehy presentation,” says Andrea Ramirez of Imalinx, the IPC’s Latin America office.  “It was a show focused on foodservice industry, and an Idaho dehy supplier got over 25 contacts from Mexico and Central America.”

Show-goers also got a chance to talk with Chef Consuelo, the top chef for IPC in Latin America, about the benefits, varieties and uses of potato flakes/flour for bakery, snacks and other products.

Idaho dehy products were sampled at the Potatoes USA booth at Mexico’s Food Technology Summit & Expo in September 2017.

Field Days: IPC Reverse Trade Mission Hosts Global Visitors

Industry members from around the world spent five days in Idaho® potato land this fall, finding out firsthand what makes the super spud unique and cultivating new ideas for expanding Idaho potatoes’ global market presence.

All three IPC regional offices invited buyers to the annual IPC Reverse Trade Mission on Sept. 17-23 to explore every detail of Idaho potato harvesting and processing, with plenty of delicious samples of Idaho potatoes at every meal. The educational and relationship-building meeting kicked off with a session introducing the 15 international guests to the Idaho potato industry, featuring presentations by representatives from all of the IPC international offices about their numerous activities and the resources they provide in markets worldwide. The University of Idaho (the state’s land grant university), the Idaho State Department of Agriculture and representative Idaho shippers then teamed up to explain the different elements that make an Idaho potato superior to any other potato in the world.

Next up, the global group got to see and experience those elements of uniqueness for themselves, spending days out in the field and touring Idaho potato warehouses, packaging facilities, and frozen and dehy processing plants. Along the way they also laid the groundwork for relationships with members of Idaho’s grower and shipper community.

“Our goal was to create excitement and a better understanding of Idaho potatoes and potato products, leaving them with a lasting positive impression of why Idaho potatoes are so different from all other potato products,” says IPC International Marketing Director Traci Lofthus. “They learned a lot from each other too, and came away with great business ideas and possible ventures with one another.”

The participants were overwhelmingly enthusiastic about the reverse trade mission, and many conveyed their feelings to the IPC after they returned home:

“It’s interesting to learn about new promotion techniques, and especially useful to understand potato diseases.”
--Angie Ong, Singapore

“We usually mix origins of potatoes. But after understanding the supervision, maintenance and care they put in the [Idaho] fields and facilities, it makes me think and evaluate increasing volumes of Idaho potatoes to bring into Guatemala.”
--Jorge Cabrera, Guatemala

“My visit to Idaho was just simply a one-of-a-kind experience. I brought home with me good memories of all the places we visited, but above all the excellent product you make in Idaho and the entrepreneurial people I met.”
--Gastón Durán, Mexico

“I managed to meet a few of the growers, and we are in the midst of discussions with a local importer.”
--Sherry Ng, Malaysia

“It is an impressive process that an Idaho potato has to go through to get to our markets. I promise I will start working to bring Idaho potatoes to Panama. I am falling in love!”
--Darlin Chang, Panama

Reverse trade mission participants saw an Idaho fall potato harvest up close and personal.

The group visited a shed to see and understand the packaging process.

After a tour of a dehy facility, trade mission guests chowed down on several different retail products.

Participants took a break at an antler arch in downtown Jackson Hole, Wyoming, before heading to nearby Grand Teton National Park.

Celina de Agreda from El Salvador found some moose love outside a Jackson Hole, Wyoming, gift shop.