According to a report published by the Chinese press agency Xinhua today, a Chinese potato seed producer from the northwest Gansu Province has established a flourishing business exporting small seed potatoes to the Middle East.
Li Jinfu reportedly started his potato seed business over 20 years ago. Since 2009, he began to exploit overseas markets. “I had never thought about international deals until a friend told me that there was a huge demand in the Turkish market,” Li said. “It was a good opportunity for my company. So I decided to give it a try.” The Turkish clients only wanted potatoes with a diameter of 18 to 22 millimeters. Li and his colleagues measured every single potato of the first batch of 90,000 minitubers before sending them to Turkey.
A Saudi Arabian company took a fancy to his potatoes when its managers were on a business trip in Turkey. Before long 800,000 of Li’s potatoes were sent to Saudi Arabia. This year Li Jinfu’s company has so far exported a total of 10 million seed potatoes to other countries as well, including Egypt, the UAE and Thailand.
