An Analysis of Organic Potato Demand in the U.S.

Organic food sales have been increasing rapidly. Changing consumer tastes and preferences provide market opportunities for organically-grown food products, including potatoes. We developed a model to determine the factors that influence U.S. demand for fresh organic potatoes. The model’s explanatory variables include organic potato price, consumer income, rice price, organic carrot price, red and Yukon Gold potato price, chicken price, the number of Whole Food stores, average Body Mass Index, the organic penetration rate and regional dummy variables. We found organic potato demand to be more sensitive than conventional potato demand to changes in price and consumer income. The New England region had the highest preferences for organic potatoes. We forecasted a 19% annual growth rate in U.S. per capita organic potato consumption to 2013.