The Jersey Royal is the marketing name of a type of potato grown in Jersey which has a Protected Designation of Origin. The potatoes are of the variety known as International Kidney and are typically grown as a new potato.
History
Around 1878 a Jersey farmer, Hugh de la Haye, showed friends a large potato that he had bought. It had 15 'eyes': points from which new plants sprout. They cut this potato into pieces, which they planted in a
côtil (a steeply sloping field) above the Bellozanne valley. One plant produced kidney-shaped potatoes, with a paper-thin skin, which they called the
Jersey Royal Fluke. This was later shortened to 'Jersey Royal'.
[, This is Jersey, accessed 18 January 2009.]
Present day
In modern times the Jersey Royal is Jersey's biggest crop export, accounting for around 70 per cent of agricultural turnover.
[ "No 'small potatoes' for marketing", BBC News, 1 April 2008.] Ninety-nine per cent of production is exported to the United Kingdom.
In 2012 Jersey exported 28,600 tonnes of it, worth £28.6 million. This figure was down from 30,890 tonnes in 2011.
Under the Common Agricultural Policy of the European Union Jersey Royals are covered by a Protected Designation of Origin.[ Jersey Royal]
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