Big future for bright spud

White Beauty is a new potato produced from a 15-year breeding programme at Plant & Food Research. The new potato is a cross between the disease-resistant Summer Delight potato and the old multipurpose Australian favourite Coliban.

The result is a bright, versatile potato that is extremely high-yielding.

“White Beauty comes with a lot of promise,” says Plant & Food Research crop scientist John Anderson. “Not only is it showing itself to be an excellent all-round cooking potato, it has a very nice taste, which we think will prove a real challenge to other potato cultivars in the market.”

White Beauty has a lower sugar and higher dry matter content than many other potatoes in the fresh market potato range, such as Nadine, the most widely consumed white potato. This means it makes a good mash and is great for roasting, as well as being delicious boiled whole, making it a more versatile potato for consumers.

Although marketed as White Beauty, the cultivar name is ‘Crop39’, and is licensed to Morgan Laurenson Ltd. The company believes that the impressive characteristics of the new cultivar should translate well into wide distribution.

“White Beauty is set to become a serious market contender in the washed and brushed table potato range,” says Morgan Laurenson managing director Bill Foster. “From the perspective of both the grower and the consumer, we believe White Beauty has the potential to be a hit.

“The characteristics of White Beauty also bode well for exploring new export opportunities.”

Although White Beauty has been bred specifically for New Zealand conditions, it is also being evaluated in both Australia and the USA.

White Beauty will be commercially available to growers through Morgan Laurenson Ltd from 2017.

For more information on the potato breeding programme, go to http://www.plantandfood.co.nz/growingfutures/case-studies/potatoes-for-boiling-crisping-chipping