Lotte Mart moves up new-crop sweet potato sales by two weeks ahead of heat wave

Lotte Mart will sell "Haet Hopungmi" sweet potatoes (1.5 kg) and "Haet Bam" sweet potatoes (1.5 kg) at 7,992 won each from Thursday through Aug. 12, the retailer announced.

The chain began stocking new-crop sweet potatoes across all its stores on July 23, about two weeks earlier than in previous years. Domestically grown sweet potatoes are typically harvested from July through October, then stored and sold through the following year. However, the longer they remain in storage, the harder it becomes to maintain quality — softening and texture deterioration can develop over time.

This year, a prolonged heat wave combined with a monsoon season that arrived later than usual kept humidity high, making quality control during storage even more critical. In response, Lotte Mart shortened the sales window for stored sweet potatoes and moved up the launch of fresh new-crop stock.

Kwon Sang-mun, a merchandise manager on the Lotte Mart and Super vegetable team, said the company plans to "continue discovering high-quality, great-tasting domestic varieties to offer customers going forward."