Year-round marketing campaigns are a great way to promote root vegetables
By Kim O. Morgan as published in Produce Business
Root vegetables, so named because they grow underground with leafy greens above ground, absorb great amounts of nutrients from the soil, making them some of the healthiest vegetables in the produce section.
Consumers tend to think of potatoes, onions and sweet potatoes as root vegetables, but this produce category also includes carrots, beets, radishes, turnips, parsnips, ginger, garlic, yams, cassava, celery root, rutabaga, jicama and horseradish, all giving shoppers a large variety of healthy choices and flavors.
“The root vegetable market is one of the most unique groups of produce out there. You have unique spice with horseradish and parsnips; great color and flavor with carrots, beets, turnips and radishes; and you have great versatility with potatoes and sweet potatoes,” says Matt McMillin, leader of marketing and business development at J.R. Kelly Company in Collinsville, Illinois.
J.R. Kelly Company is the largest supplier of horseradish roots in the United States. The fertile soil in Collinsville, 15 miles from downtown St. Louis, creates the ideal environment for production of horseradish, and thus McMillin proclaims it to be the “Horseradish Capital of the World.”
Regional preferences can indeed play a role in demand for specific root vegetables.
“In the Midwest, we see strong interest in hearty staples, like russet and red potatoes, as well as yellow onions,” says Alexandra Gumz, head of marketing, Gumz Farms LLC, Endeavor, Wisconsin.
