A farm in Swanley has successfully grown Britain’s first ever sweet potato crop.

The ground-breaking innovation has been in development at Watts Farm since 2012 and will now go on sale at Asda stores across the country.

Sweet potatoes traditionally come from the warmer climates of South America and Africa, but growers at the farm came up with a method allowing for the crop to be planted in spring and grown to pull in late October, thus keeping warm and avoiding the looming winter frost.

Brits have lapped up this more exotic variety of potatoes of late, with sales increasing by 46% during the last 12 months alone, and Watts Farm director Joe Cottingham is delighted with the three tonne homegrown harvest.

“We are hugely proud to be delivering this UK first to Asda for its supermarket shoppers,” he said.

“Sweet potatoes are now a UK dinner table favourite, and these taste and look exactly the same as those grown overseas, so to have them from home soil is a great feat for us!”

Asda will be hoping their popularity continues to grow, with shoppers taking a liking to their sweeter taste and lower calorie count.

The supermarket’s fresh produce manager Mandy Shephard said having them grown in Kent is great for fans of the veg.

“We are hugely excited to be the first supermarket to stock British sweet potatoes, allowing us to give something which already has brilliant popularity, but grown in UK, here in Kent,” she said.