Collaborative working across the levy boards’ market intelligence divisions is enabling the Potato Council to offer growers the chance to ask specific questions about consumer and market intelligence and help make strategic business decisions.

The levy board has collected a wealth of data from specialist research organisations, such as Kantar WorldPanel, NPD Crest, YouGov, which is channelled through the AHDB Market Intelligence Division.

The data covers potato performance in retail and food service markets, changes in the types of potato consumed, and regular reports on food trends, such as online retailing, organic food and older consumers.

In addition, the Potato Council commissions bespoke projects designed to improve understanding of shoppers, and drive marketing and new product development in the industry.

Some of this information is available in regular reports on top-line market information, Caroline Evans, head of marketing and corporate affairs for the Potato Council explained at British Potato 2011, but a new service would build on that, enabling levy payers to send enquiries that drill down into specific areas.

“With such a large bank of data available, we wanted to ensure the industry is able to benefit from a service which answers their specific questions, for example about discounter performance or how salads are performing.

“Using the service can save businesses money, as it provides readily available information which will either provide the answer, or identify where additional research needs to be commissioned.”

Queries should be sent to marketing@potato.ahdb.org, where the team will endeavour to respond in five working days, depending on the complexity of the enquiry.

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