Continuing its push to promote healthier variants of potatoes, ITC in India is set to begin trial cultivation of red potatoes in Gujarat, reports Times of India.

ITC is one of India’s foremost private sector companies, which has a diversified presence in Angri-Business, FMCG, Hotels, Packaging, Paperboards & Specialty Papers.

Red potatoes are a variety recently launched by the company, that are high on anthocyanin, which gives it antioxidant properties.

Besides red potatoes, ITC has also launched purple potatoes, that are currently in trial cultivation in northern India.

“We plan to scale up cultivation of both red and purple potatoes to 75-80 tons this year. Next year, it will be scaled up to 300 tons,” said Sachid Madan, chief executive, Technico Agri Sciences Limited at ITC Group.

The company procured red potatoes from the US while the purple variant is from New Zealand. Through the Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI). Currently, both variants are being cultivated in Uttar Pradesh on trial basis.

Red and purple potatoes are currently available in India at specialty gourmet stores and are consumed at five-star hotels and upmarket restaurants, primary in salads.

Two years ago, ITC launched four variants of healthy potatoes including natural low-sugar ones.