The Michigan purple, developed by Dave Douches, Michigan State University professor of plant breeding and genetics, and head of the university’s potato breeding program, said light supplies of the potato will be available for commercial production in the summer of 2003.

The purple potato and the jacqueline lee, an oblong golden-fleshed potato, are the first table-stock varieties released by the university’s 14-year-old breeding program. The Michigan Potato Industry Commission, DeWitt, Michigan, will have samples to take to retailers later this year.

“When we originally started breeding it, there wasn’t a market for the purple-skinned potato,” Douches said. “We selected it more out of curiosity, using it in the field as a way to separate other materials. But it had this nice, attractive appearance, and it caught everyone’s eye.”

Interest spiked when people in the plant breeding program took the potatoes home and found they had good cooking qualities, and the flesh stayed white when cooked. Initial retailer interest also is there, said Ben Kudwa, executive director of the Commission.

“It is important to develop the market and make retailers aware that this is a product that is becoming available so we can pave the way,” Kudwa said.

“I’m finding they’re very interested, particularly in the Michigan purple because it is unique and different. The jacqueline lee is also different because it is an oblong yellow potato, as opposed to the round potato you would normally see, like the Yukon gold.”