UK | Nemo gourmet potatoes have become one of the UK’s most sought-after roasting potatoes, especially at Christmas.
Eager shoppers will find it much easier to find the rare Nemo spud. Nemo is a phureja hybrid variety that has combined the vigorous, fast-growing nature of original Peruvian potatoes with the hardiness of modern European varieties from the Solanum tuberosum Solanaceae family.
It has the golden yellow flesh typical of an Andean phureja, but its more uniform cell structure enables it to cook much more quickly. Its distinctive pink skin has creamy yellow patches around its significant eye-like markings, giving it a bi-coloured appearance.
Grown in Lincolnshire and Suffolk for potato supplier Branston, the ‘game-changing’ Nemo variety became an overnight hit not only because it can cut cooking time by a quarter but also because of its gourmet quality premium taste.
Until now, the potatoes have only been exclusively available on very limited trials at Tesco stores. However, based on previous high demand this year, Branston has been supplying enough to last for the next seven months.
Branston, one of Britain’s biggest potato suppliers, was optimistic that the Nemo, due to its greater availability, could soon join classic roasting spuds King Edward and Maris Piper as world beaters.
“The Nemo is now well on its way to becoming a modern British classic potato and is already being talked about by those who have tried it as the ultimate roasting spud,” said Tesco potato buyer Lucy Moss.
“The potato is considered a game-changer not only because it can slash cooking time compared with the average roasting spud but also because of its wonderful creamy taste, rich, fluffy texture, crisp outer skin and distinct golden colour.”
Branston, whose largest packing site is based near Lincoln, plans to increase Nemo's availability further over the next few years as seed volumes expand.
“Establishing a new potato takes many years as we need to understand how and where it grows best while testing it in the market. At the same time, potato seed multiplication takes four to five years to build up to complete commercial volumes, giving us time to fully understand its strengths and weaknesses,” said Mark Willcox, Director of Agronomy at Branston.
“We are very pleased with how well Nemo has performed in Tesco’s Finest range over the recent Christmas periods’. Based on this success, this year, we planted enough to maintain it in store for up to seven months, based on previous sale rates.”
Willcox added that Branston carefully selected the best growers to grow this premium potato on the best land. Nemo's environmental credentials were strong, too, as it required relatively small amounts of fertilisers, and much of this nutrition can be organically derived.
“It has strong disease resistance and uses water efficiently, especially where applied by drip irrigation. Many Nemo fields have benefitted local biodiversity by planting flower-rich grass field margins.”
The Tesco Finest Nemo Potatoes will be available in more than 400 stores.
