Five-color potatoes fetch high prices, sell well, and deliver impressive returns

The skin is black, but when cut open, the flesh is deep purple, and a bite reveals a fresh radish-like fragrance... Today, the 60,000 mu of early-spring potatoes in Jiaoxi Town, Jiaozhou City, Shandong Province, enter their peak harvest season. In the potato arched shed of vegetable grower Liu Shulin in Doujiaheya Village in the town, Old Liu rolled up his sleeves and proudly showed off a kind of colored potato he had grown. "The yield is more than 1,000 jin per mu, and although the wholesale price reaches the 'sky-high' price of 10 yuan per jin, demand still exceeds supply," Liu Shulin said.

According to Wang Yupeng, director of the town's Agricultural Science and Technology Service Center, this potato is called "Black Beauty." It was newly introduced last year from the Gansu Space Breeding Center. Although its appearance is not very different from ordinary potatoes, it is a new variety that has been to space and developed through scientific hybridization. Because it is rich in anthocyanins, it has health-care and beauty benefits, and is suitable both for cooking and for eating raw.

Jiaoxi Town, long known as "Shandong Province's No. 1 Potato Town," has always supported and cultivated potato planting as its leading industry. In recent years, the scale of the potato industry has expanded rapidly, and the industry's level has also undergone a qualitative leap. In 2008, it was rated by Qingdao City as a specialized potato town.

After the successful promotion of "Black Beauty" potatoes last year, the town also cooperated with the Spark Base of the Provincial Department of Science and Technology to introduce selenium-enriched potato cultivation technology. By spraying selenium-enriched foliar fertilizer, the selenium content was greatly increased. The cost increased by only a few dozen yuan per mu, but the benefit increased by 3,000 to 4,000 yuan. Wang Yupeng said that this technology has been successfully promoted and has entered some large shopping malls and supermarkets in Shandong Province. The price is nearly ten times higher than that of ordinary potatoes, yet it is still favored by consumers. This year, the town has also successively introduced new varieties in red, white, patterned and other colors, and many vegetable growers have planted "five-color potatoes."

To strengthen the competitiveness of the potato industry, in recent years the town has also explored a three-crop-a-year planting model of "large arched shed early-spring potatoes - summer cabbage - autumn potatoes," adjusting from the previous single open-field planting to a model rationally combining three structures: "large arched sheds, small arched sheds, and open fields," achieving "multiple crops a year, off-season planting, and staggered-season marketing."

"In the past, potatoes were planted for only one season, which led to concentrated marketing, weak competitiveness, and low returns. Now products reach the market from April to mid-July, which not only increases output but also brings good prices." In the potato arched shed in Songgezhuang Village after harvesting was completed, village party branch secretary Song Tongwu calculated this account for the reporter: early-spring potatoes begin to reach the market before "May Day," with the price per kilogram reaching 4 yuan, and the benefit per mu averaging more than 3,000 yuan higher than that of open-field potatoes. In their village alone, the area under large arched shed cultivation reaches 5,000 mu. By this calculation, they would earn nearly 15 million yuan more. (Ning Xuechun, Zhao Fawen, Zhou Zhaoshun)

(Source: Excerpted from People's Daily Online)