Babatata produces sweet potato at three different locations in Taiwan. The company is the only sweet potato producer in Taiwan and exports to markets in Japan and, since recently, Hong Kong. “We export fresh sweet potato to Japan and Hong Kong. Japan is a big market for us. Earlier this year we launched our export programme to Hong Kong. Next to fresh sweet potato we are also known for our Babatata sweet potato crisps. These are healthy alternatives to potato crisps and very tasty. We also export frozen sweet potatoes,” says Hsu Chao-I, team leader at Babatata.
“The Japanese market is similar to the Taiwanese market. General income is high and people can afford to pay more for premium fresh vegetables. Export prices at the end of last year hovered around 2.5 USD for 1 kg. We export 30% of our products, the remaining 70% we sell in Taiwan or we use for our sweet potato crisp production. Sweet potato is eaten more these days in Taiwan and Japan. People understand that it is a very healthy crop to eat. In Taiwan we recently started to supply the 7-Eleven supermarkets”.
“We produce 1,500 tons sweet potatoes a year. China could be a promising market for us. However, current wholesale markets are too low to sustain export. Every week we export 1 container to Hong Kong. Next year we want to grow this number to 2 containers. To Japan we export 5 containers per month. So far this export has been stable."
“At our farm we produce three different kinds of sweet potato: yellow, purple and red varieties. The yellow and purple variety is available between October and April. The red variety is available in the summer months from April to September. Combined we can supply the market whole year round.”
