The sweet potato season in China is in full swing. Due to heavy rainfall, production in some areas is in varying degrees lower than last year. For example, production in Guangxi is about 20% lower while that in other areas is only slightly reduced due to rainfall.
“The sweet potato season each year is comprised of two stages, early and later periods. The early crops are already available by the end of July, and the late ones become available around mid-October. This year, the new crops came onto the market later than last year, mainly due to less rainfall. We mainly offer later varieties as they taste better and are not prone to budding and rotting problems. This year's sales window is relatively short and is expected to end before the Chinese New Year. The overall production is not low, but the yield per mu was reduced due to insufficient rainfall. Fortunately, the taste in general is better than that of last year and is sweeter. Quality is also good, which is mainly thanks to our efforts in the sorting,” Mr. Hao Bo (founder of the Qinqin Jiangpin brand) of Honghe Qinyun Zhishang Agricultural Development Co., Ltd. said. 
Tang Shush sweet potato packaging
Currently, Qinqin Jiangpin mainly works with farmers in Jianshui and its surrounding counties and towns. When talking about market demand and prices, he said, “The overall demand is good. In terms of other varieties, red-skinned potatoes will have some impact on the sales of gray-skinned sweet potatoes, but the impact will not be significant, because they taste different, so sales channels and consumers will make their own choices. Prices are not much different from last year. In general, prices are higher than for Liubie red-skinned sweet potatoes and size 25 gray-skinned sweet potatoes in the market. The market demand is good, and prices remain at a high level. Current prices vary with the grade, with consumer prices at about 7-14 yuan per half a kilo.”
Fresh sweet potatoes
"Our variety is a gray-skinned potato, an old seed variety, which is very fragrant that restores the fragrance of sweet potatoes. It is very tender and sweet and has no fiber when eaten. Our product brand is Qinqin Jiangpin, and the product name is Tang Shushu. In general, our consumers are happy with the taste of our product and think that our product tastes better than other sweet potatoes. We expect more people will prefer this product in the near future, so surely there will be a higher demand. Of course, as the local growing acreages are also increasing, prices are unlikely to increase.”
Baked sweet potato
“In terms of sales channels, we adopted a model that combines online and offline sales activities. We use sales models such as e-commerce, micro-business sales, community sales, and self-media online and mainly focus on wholesale markets and supermarkets offline."
"Currently, we mainly sell to first-tier cities in China and have not yet penetrated second and third-tier cities, but we expect them to be our main focus of sales in the future. We focus on branding and building a quality-based system to improve consumer recognition of our brand, as well as selling our standardized products through diversifies sales channels. We currently mainly sell to the local Chinese market, but we have also deployed staff to the export business in order to liaise with overseas customers if there is demand abroad.” This year Qinqin Jiangpin will also participate in Asia Fresh with booth number B016, which will be held on 15 - 17 November at the National Exhibition & Convention Center in Shanghai.
Sweet potato factory
More information:
Contact: Hao Bo
Company: Honghe Qinyun Zhishang Agricultural Development Co., Ltd.
Company: Founder of the brand of Qinqin Jiangpin
Phone: +86 186 5292 9191