Sweet potato growers in North Carolina are hoping to replicate the success of the Washington apple brand for their product.

Jeff Justice, international trade specialist at the North Carolina Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, said: “The US sweet potato category is worth around $6 million and growth increased by 100 per cent two years ago, and 70 per cent last year.

“Educating consumers is our biggest challenge so that the distributors can then fill the demand.”

He said sweet potatoes offer a greater range of health benefits than standard potatoes but consumers are unaware of this, and more importantly what to do with them.

In the US, recipe cards have been stocked in supermarkets to encourage people to expand their usage of the product and Justice hoped a similar plan could be implemented in the UK.

“At the moment sweet potatoes are not featured at all in British supermarkets,” he said. “People confuse them with regular potatoes or just don't recognise them at all. They don't know that they can be barbecued, mashed, cooked in pies or even cut up and eaten raw with a dip. There are just so many things you can do with them.”

He said the fact that North Carolina could supply sweet potatoes year-round, and cover the gap in the Israeli calendar was a further selling point.

Justice claimed the quality of US produce is generally recognised but since distributors control the UK retail scene, the challenge for exporters was to build a relationship with distributors first.

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