Purple sweet potatoes: small market but lots of potential

"There is little demand for purple sweet potatoes", says Sophie Ye of KX Food. "This demand is, however, growing quite rapidly." This Belgian company has only been importing one container of these root vegetables per month from China for a few months now. "It is not yet as popular as the orange variety. We have, however, noticed that a lot of people like the purple colour. This product is currently mostly being used as a garnish. It is, however, becoming more popular to use these purple sweet potatoes in the preparation of dishes."

The price for purple sweet potatoes is stable. "Last week the price was at the €1,30 and €1,70 per kg level. The price for sweet potatoes is more stable than that for ginger. That fluctuates wildly", says Sophie. Purple sweet potatoes are available throughout the year. At KX Food, they can be found in 6kg and 10kg packs. "We tell our clients to wash and scrub this product thoroughly. In this way, you can store it for longer."

Southern Europe
Sweet potatoes are very popular. However, this purple cousin still has to become better known. "Even in China, where we get it from, it is not as well-known as the orange version. Most of our purple sweet potatoes go to Germany and Southern Europe. A few go to the Netherlands. We do not, however, sell any in Belgium. Yet, we have noticed that these purple sweet potatoes fit in nicely with the current health trends. Purple is a healthy colour. These sweet potatoes also look nice", says Ye.

The import company want to gradually grow its sales of this relatively small product. "We have not had this product in our assortment for very long yet. We must, therefore, wait to see how it does on the market. Orange sweet potatoes have, however, become really popular. Hopefully, this will also be the case with the purple variety. It would be great if this product could become more popular in Belgium and the Netherlands", concludes Sophie.