The 2017 Purple Sweet Potato Food Culture Festival was launched in Neixiang county on Aug 26, attracting numerous visitors from Xinye, Tanghe, Dengzhou and even Fujian province.

Hosted by Youmin Cooperative, the festival offered a variety of snacks made from purple sweet potato and associated products such as steamed buns, bread, moon cakes and vermicelli noodles.

As an added bonus to the festivities, a piece of land was marked off and opened for visitors to dig up purple sweet potatoes and experience farming fun.

Neixiang county's farming cooperative planted 7000 mu (467 hectares) with purple sweet potato this year, bringing in an estimated turnover of 20 million yuan ($3 million), said Zhang Chaobao, head of the cooperative.

While enlarging the planting area of purple sweet potatoes, the cooperative is also trying to cultivate organic agricultural products.

Its purple sweet potato not only passed the organic certification last year, but also is sold all over the country through the e-commerce platforms of Taobao and Mango Sir.