Nelson company Proper Crisps is once again using locally produced kūmara to make its crisps.
The company had to use Australian-grown sweet potatoes in October after Cyclone Gabrielle and other weather events decimated local kūmara crops.
Proper Crisps had promised local growers it would source locally once crops recovered.
Ant Blundell, from Kaipara Kūmara, who has been supplying Proper Crisps for over a decade, said Gabrielle was the final blow in a weather trifecta that started with torrential rain and then saw the Auckland Anniversary Day floods. Gabrielle decimated 99% of the region’s kūmara crops, he said.
“In our 50 years of harvesting kūmara, last year’s weather was by far the biggest challenge we’ve faced,” Blundell said.
Proper Crisps said the impact of the cyclone resulted in an industry downturn of 70% and that it shifted to an Australian supplier and released Proper Crisps Sweet Potato “to keep shelves warm while the kūmara crop recuperated”.
“After a limited season of the Aussie variant, Proper Crisps has now placed an order for 700 tonnes of NZ-grown kūmara to make into Lightly Salted Hand Cooked Kūmara Crisps for the New Zealand market.”
Blundell said the 2024 kūmara harvest was good quality.
“What we can say about Proper Crisps is they exemplify what a great customer and business partner should look like. Integrity, professional, transparent, honest, engaging and very personable.”
Proper Lightly Salted Hand Cooked Kūmara Crisps 100g is now available at supermarkets for $5.59.
