Popcorn is poppin´

FIT-POP popcorn is sold in Iowa grocery stores and movie theaters. It all started in the 1980s, when Jim Fitkin and his family decided to give this crop a try.

Busi­nesses some­times start in the most round­about ways. Today, Jim Fitkin, his wife Debbie, and daugh­ters Lora and Jennifer supply popcorn to multiple grocery stores, movie theatres, and other outlets. But it all started on just a frac­tion of an acre on their Cedar Falls, Iowa, farm. “We’d always grown a bit of popcorn in our garden,” says Jim Fitkin. What spurred expan­sion, though, was a long-forgotten farm programme in the early 1980s.

“The PIK [1983 Payment-in-Kind] programme limited the number of corn (maize) acres we could grow,” he says. This didn’t apply to acres devoted to silage which helped feed the dairy cows that he and his father Wayne milked. “Popcorn made great silage, and it didn’t count against our corn base acres,” he says. “We worked with a seed dealer in Ames, Iowa, who had bred popcorn hybrids for maize silage. “It was popcorn, but that’s about all you could say about it,” says Jim. “It worked better for silage.”

Pitching the brand: FIT-POP

Mean­while, the Fitkins tried growing better popcorn in their garden. “We finally decided we should start trying to sell some of it,” Jim says. “We were still milking cows, so we kept hovering at selling about $40 (£32) worth of popcorn once a month just for some­thing to do.”

The farm’s FIT-POP brand is sold in Iowa grocery stores and other outlets.

After a while, though, they expanded sales by selling 50-pound bags to nearby bowling alleys. Their big break came in 1986, when Jim pitched FIT-POP popcorn – the farm’s brand – to a local Hy-Vee store. “Back then, people just wanted to buy popcorn from big compa­nies,” says Jim. “I went in there and talked to three or four depart­ment heads. Finally, I saw the store director. He started to brush me off, but then we got onto the subject of him buying a house. He asked if I was related to Larry Fitkin, who was my cousin. He said, ‘You know, I just bought a house from him.’”

A few moments passed. “Well,” the store manager finally said, “let’s give your popcorn a try.” That did it. The Fitkins started growing and selling more popcorn, which increased when they stopped milking cows about 25 years ago. They expanded sales from 15 to 20 acres, and now sell FIT-POP popcorn in 25 Hy-Vee stores in eastern Iowa. Other clients include several movie theatres, farmers’ markets, and Hansen’s Farm Fresh Dairy, a Hudson, Iowa, firm that brands its milk.

They also pop the popcorn with various flavors for sale. The more value that is added to the popcorn, the higher the sale price.

A chal­lenging plant

The Fitkins use the same planter and combine for growing popcorn that they use for field maize. Weed control is more chal­lenging, as fewer herbi­cides are approved for popcorn compared to field or sweet­corn. “It’s also a more deli­cate plant,” Jim says. This leaves it more prone to wind events snap­ping it. Insect control is also more diffi­cult compared to field maize, as no trans­genic tech­nology exists to control corn root­worm and Euro­pean corn borer. The family use crop rota­tion to minimise insects and diseases like grey leaf spot.

Yields are lower than field maize, although the test weight is higher. Last year, the family’s popcorn’s test weight aver­aged around 67 pounds per bushel for popcorn, compared to 58 pounds per bushel for field corn. Typi­cally, 5t/acre is a good yield, Jim says. What gives popcorn an edge over field corn are value-added premiums. Popcorn sold off the combine only gleans around 15 cents per pound (11.8p/lb). But prices quickly increase the more popcorn is processed.

“Popcorn in a 50-pound bag typi­cally sells for around 50 cents per pound (40p), and in a two-pound bag, it’s $1 (79p),” Jim says. “If I pop it, I can get $15 per pound (£11.80). It’s a value-added product.” Popcorn produc­tion does require a processing invest­ment. The Fitkins run popcorn through a gravity table and fanning mill to remove chaff and weed and crop seeds and to sort popcorn by size and weight. A bagging machine places popcorn into two-pound bags.

Competing against national brands is chal­lenging. Still, recent market trends have helped. “The past 15 years or so, local has been an item,” says Jim. “We’re local. Our customers know where their popcorn comes from.” Product consis­tency gives the Fitkins another edge. “Bigger compa­nies will blend popcorn together, whereas ours stays the same, always consis­tent.”