Shoppers are noticing inflation
and it is impacting the ways they buy
91% perceive prices as being much or little higher
Most Impacted Categories
What if your perception of the price of groceries and everyday
household items now, compared to last year?
Changes in Shopping Behavior
Have you changed your shopping choices recently due to increased grocery prices?
(among those who noticed higher prices)
Source: IRI OmniConsumer™ Survey Solutions, December 2021, n=1,069 total respondents, fielded 12/3-8/2021
Potato Market Update
Growers in Colorado and Wisconsin continue to monitor their russet potato storage inventories. Both states appear comfortable that their supplies will last until mid-July for Wisconsin and early August in Colorado. Pricing remains steady. Overall, quality remains above average.
Limited supplies of red potatoes are available in the Midwest. Growers in Florida started shipping new crop red potatoes, and Texas growers have begun planting red and yellow potatoes. New crop potatoes are expected in mid to late June.
Storage crop yellow potato supplies are winding down in North Dakota, Minnesota, Idaho, and Colorado. Inventories are expected to be gone by mid to late April. The market will then transition to a new crop of yellow potatoes from California, Texas, Arizona, and Florida. Due to depleted supplies, new crop yellow potato pricing will be at a premium this spring.
Storage crop white potatoes are available in the Northeast, with most of the product remaining in that region. Florida growers have begun bringing new crop white potatoes to market, with most of the inventory remaining in the southeast. Pricing remains very stable.
Storage crop fingerling potatoes are available in Colorado, Idaho and Washington. Supplies are suitable and remain at a steady price.
Onion Market Update
Nationwide the onion market remains firm. Supplies are diminishing in the Columbia Basin and Idaho as growers finish with storage crop supplies. Most growers have finished whites for the season and are shipping primarily yellows with small red onions.
Product from Mexico is starting to ramp up, with prices remaining strong in all colors and sizes.
Growers in California are preparing to start up at the end of April in the Imperial Valley. Growers experienced a recent freeze, which could cause some quality issues during the season.
If you’re like us, there’s one reason you care about sustainability, and it has nothing to do with its status as the latest feel-good trend.
If you’re like us, sustainability matters to you because you see it as central to creating a great future for your children and grandchildren.
Sustainability is personal for the folks behind RPE and all their potato and onion brands. Their goal is much bigger than growing quality potatoes and onions. Their goal is to continue a legacy.
Many of our farms are third-generation and fourth-generation operations; the men and women who run them continue the work of their parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents.
So when we say these family businesses make decisions with the long term in mind, you can be confident they’re not just thinking about coming decades. They’re thinking about coming generations.
It’s not an easy profession they’ve labored in for so many years, but it is truly a labor of love.
The individuals at the helm of our partner farms want their children to have a thriving operation when their turn arrives. To support their family’s future now, these growers are dedicated to taking care of the resources that power them.
A fourth-generation member of one of our farms described the essence of sustainability as what he learned in Boy Scouts: Leave no trace – or better yet, leave everywhere you go better than you found it.
From water conservation in Idaho to wetland mitigation in Wisconsin to preservation of land for pollinators in Colorado, our farmers serve as stewards. Beyond the land itself, our farmers have invested in using 100 percent renewable electricity in the packinghouses where their potatoes and onions are sorted and packed. They’ve switched out motors in those packinghouses for ones that use less energy. They’ve developed biodegradable packaging to offer alternatives to traditional plastic options.
There are many more examples of sustainable practices in the operations of our growers, but they all come back to that central motivating factor. For them, the goal is not simply great potatoes and onions; the goal is a great future for their children and their grandchildren.
If you’re looking to support businesses that define success as more than a healthy bottom line, or a company that is motivated on a personal level to always be on the lookout for ways to use their resources more wisely, you can be confident that RPE and their brands are something you can get behind.
