The demand for purple sweet potatoes seems to keep growing. "We get more and more requests for them as the awareness around them grows and consumers start asking for them," says Jeremy Fookes of A.V. Thomas Produce.
© A.V. Thomas Produce
The company grows and packs California-grown Stokes™ purple sweet potato, a dryer, purple-fleshed/purple-skinned sweet potato which is marketed through Freida's, along with its Ben Yagi™ purple sweet potato. The latter is more of a moist purple-fleshed sweet potato. It also ships Hawaiian-grown Okinawa sweet potatoes, which are purple-fleshed/white-skinned potatoes and the Japanese sweet potato which has purple skin with white flesh.
In turn, this growing interest continues to push up production on the item as well. Fookes notes it works to responsibly increase its production to match demand, though that also depends on the availability of acreage, seed, and more. "We want to expand in a way that's sustainable. We don't want to overproduce and then have a hard time selling them," he says.
Marketing the item
This growth comes following marketing efforts on the unique item that date back to 2006, when the company began growing the product. "We continue to invest in marketing because it is still relatively unknown in some parts of the country or exporting these. They don't tend to be a year round type item just because of availability, stores, supply and whatnot," says Fookes. "Any time you have a gap in availability, there's always the effort to try and rekindle the market share before the crop is exhausted from the prior year."
© A.V. Thomas Produce
The demand also grows as consumers continue to be interested in foods with health benefits–purple sweet potatoes are a phytonutrient-heavy food, thanks in part to its coloring. "This has a positive influence on purple sweet potato demand as we move into January when consumers are especially interested in healthy eating," he says, noting the company also continues to try and promote them during February which is Potato Lovers month.
As for pricing, it is similar to last year at this time. "We're also always trying to improve our growing methods. Because Stokes is a lower yielding variety, it's a more expensive potato to produce," he says.
For more information:
Jeremy Fookes
A.V. Thomas Produce
Tel: +1 (209) 394-7514
[email protected]
https://www.avthomasproduce.com/
