CHARLOTTETOWN – Prince Edward Island’s potato board is taking the province’s spuds from the fields to the virtual realm in a new marketing campaign.
The board has sent a dozen kits containing virtual reality goggles to large retailers across the country to give viewers a sense of what growing and harvesting the tuber is like on the Island.
Provincial data shows on average, produce from P-E-I represented nearly a quarter of Canada’s total international potato exports from 2009 to 2018, and the Island is expected to remain one of the country’s largest potato-producing provinces in the coming years.
P-E-I Potatoes marketing director Kendra Mills says the campaign addresses a challenge created by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Previously, sellers and distributors would visit P-E-I. and get a real-life look at the harvest and the product, but travel restrictions have made those trips harder.
With the virtual reality goggles, however, viewers get to experience the harvesting process without needing to be in the province.
Recipients got goggles loaded with several short videos created using footage from 360-degree cameras, taking viewers through the complete process of growing potatoes, from planting and harvesting to grading and shipping.
The initiative began just weeks before the federal government announced last week it was suspending potato shipments from the Island to the United States after the discovery of fungal potato wart in two P-E-I fields.
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