Shoppers are being encouraged to buy British new potatoes more often through a British Potato Council (BPC) national promotion for the early crop - a market worth around £30 million annually.

The BPC's 'Free days out with new potatoes' promotion already has the full backing of 10 multiple retailers who will display over 10 million bags of new potatoes with the BPC's 'Free days out' labels.

With every purchase, consumers can apply for free entry vouchers for children to over 500 venues including farms and country houses.

Last year, redemption's of a similar promotion reached over one million.

'BPC consumer research indicates that shoppers feel promotions, such as this, appear to add value and excitement to the fresh produce area of a store,' explains BPC marketing manager Kathryn Race.

'Overall, the earlies campaign is focusing on a number of core potato messages - health, education and provenance. A new look bus is touring over 20 venues, sampling and promoting the local crop to consumers.' Race points out that this type of activity is making an impact. 'When the bus was parked in a supermarket car park, the store manager reported a potato sales increase of 500kg.' The supermarkets taking part are Tesco, Safeway's, Sainsbury's, Waitrose, Marks & Spencer, Co-op, Morrisons, Somerfield, Bookers and Budgens are all selling BPC promotional bags of British new potatoes.