A 2024 report from China’s Ministry of Agriculture describes Dingxi as a major potato-producing region in Gansu and a base for virus-free seed, commercial tubers and processed foods. It outlines a production chain from breeding and cultivation to storage, processing and sale. The report gives the sector’s 2023 full-chain value as 23.8 billion yuan, with planting area around three million mu and annual output above five million tonnes. These figures place the potato at the centre of Dingxi’s contemporary agricultural economy.
From the journal
Dingxi Potatoes: From loess cellars to the table
Dingxi’s potato economy links seed production, field harvests, loess-slope storage and a wide range of everyday foods, according to a 2024 Ministry of Agriculture report.
A crop rooted in Dingxi
Potato flour in everyday foods
The ministry report names steamed buns, noodles, pastries, biscuits, naan and convenient vermicelli among Dingxi’s potato-based products. Wide potato vermicelli is especially prominent in the region’s markets. The crop moves from staple tuber to flour and processed food, giving it several forms on local tables and in trade. The report’s list connects agricultural production with food industries across the region, rather than tying the potato to one single dish or locality.
Storage shaped for the plateau
Dingxi stores potatoes in temperature-controlled warehouses, cold stores and clusters of pit cellars suited to loess slopes. The cellar is an especially direct link between the crop and the ground: storage infrastructure uses the plateau’s terrain to keep harvests through the year. In a province where different local traditions make use of cloth, brick, clay and stone, Dingxi’s potato story begins with soil and continues through seed, storage and food processing. The ministry report presents this chain as both a rural livelihood and a regional industry.