Here is a reply to my inquiry about the packaging of potatoes in pound-size bags. greg
Hello Gregory; I cannot speak for the rest of the potato world but can tell you our major market is the US, which uses pound sizes etc. rather than the metric sizes. Contrary to your belief that consumers wouldn't notice, they certainly do notice in the USA. American chain stores, etc., do not want to see metric on the bags. Many Canadians do not share your love of metric, and let us know they prefer pounds to kilograms.. So, for the Canadian market, bags with both metric and pound sizes are used. This is also a federal requirement, I believe. It is costly to have two sets of bags and also costly to put two sets of sizing measurements on the "other" bags. Potatoes are a very low margin product. If people such as Agriculture Canada really want to help, they could help us lobby retailers, processors and assorted other middlemen to get a reasonable share of the price for producers. I am pleased to help you get the answer are seeking. Thank you for your comments on our web page recipes, which are about to be totally redone. I am surprised the people at CFIA couldn't tell you this information. Just shows how government cutbacks have hurt all of us in agriculture. By the way, why does Sakatchewan, along with all western provinces, still use measurements such as "sections", "bushels per acre", etc. Even townships were measured in this manner. Best regards, Patton MacDonald / NB Potato Agency Tel: 506 276 1823 / Fax: 506 276 1828 e mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] -----Original Message----- From: NB Potato Agency [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] Sent: Friday, April 27, 2001 8:32 AM To: Patton MacDonald Subject: Fw: rational kg packaging ----- Original Message ----- From: "Gregory Peterson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2001 2:28 PM Subject: rational kg packaging > Dear NBPA, > > I would like to know why the potato industry still packages potatoes in > 5, 10, and 20-pound bags. > > Being a 30 year old Canadian educated completely in the metric system I > would much rather see rational metric size packages of 2.5 kg, 5 kg, and > 10 kg rather than 2.26 kg, 4.53 kg, and 9.07 kg. Rational metric sized > bags would contain slightly more potatoes and if marketed properly would > be preferred by most shoppers. > > Keep in mind that most shoppers just by a "small, medium, or large" bag > when they're shopping and usually had not concerns about the actual > weight. A switch to rational metric sizes would, most likely, go > unnoticed by all those Canadian, or American, consumers except for those > of us who would perfer to see modern, metric sized, vegetable bags. > > Even the United Kingdom packages potatoes in rational kilogram bag > sizes. > > BTW... thank you for listing many of your potato recipies in metric > units as I use metric in my kitchen as well. > > Sincerely, > > Gregory Peterson > Saskatoon SK Canada S7J 3S2 > >
