“We have just launched the harvest of two new, exciting sweet potato varieties: the red skinned White Flesh sweet potato (known as the GL18 variety) and the Purple sweet potato (the GL98 variety). We have developed these varieties to serve overseas markets including Canada and Europe. Their skin colour is very similar to regular sweet potatoes. However, the flesh of these crops differ from the traditional red skinned (GL88) sweet potato. The red skinned White Flesh and Purple sweet potatoes should enter the market by the end of August, which is two months later than the red skinned GL88,” explains Jenny Ma of Shandong Jining Green Living International Trade.
“The Purple sweet potato (GL98) is our flagship product. We currently cultivate 200 hectares (equal to 3,000 mu, a traditional Chinese unit of measurement) of the Purple sweet potato and hope to reach a yield of 5 tons per mu. The Purple sweet potato is rich in anthocyanins, which have strong antioxidant and anti-radiation effects and can prevent cancer, heart disease and other ailments. This makes the variety popular in China and, compared to other countries, total Chinese acreage on which this vegetable is grown is much larger.”
“When we launched the market campaign for these two new varieties we received great interest from European customers. Based on this we started to plant on a larger scale. In Canada sales of purple sweet potatoes have been strong right after the start of the campaign.”
“The red skinned White Flesh sweet potato we grow on 135 hectares (2,000 mu). We are receiving a steady increase in orders from Europe. I believe this variety is popular in Europe because the crop contains less starch and less sugar than its traditional red skinned GL88 counterpart.”
