Maca

The whole Maca scene is quite complex, so here is some data.

The colour of the root (it is really just the skin) is determined by the plant itself. You plant Maca seeds and the roots grow and the ratios are usually 60-70% yellow, 20-25% red and 10-15% black. You can read up on it in below link. There is also sometimes a purple root, but technically it is classed as red.

Several years ago Chinese companies bought up a whole harvest of Maca roots from Peru (illegally) by getting them smuggled across the border into Bolivia and then shipped to China, where they were planted and now they can supply their own Maca. I don’t know many people who knowingly buy Chinese Maca, most want South American, quite rightly. Having said that, we started getting customers wanting cheaper extracts and the R3713 is Chinese origin.

Most extracts are a blend of mixed coloured roots, if you start to specify the actual colour, then they get more expensive. A 20:1 extract takes 20kgs of roots to make 1kg of extract and if you want black maca, that is only 10-15% of the crop.

If you don’t mind Chinese material we can get, 5:1, 8:1, 10:1, 35:1 and 100:1 black maca extracts. If you want Peruvian black maca, we can only get a 10:1 from my current suppliers and it will be more expensive than Chinese material.

https://themacaexperts.com/maca/learn-about-maca/what-are-the-different-colours-of-maca/