Sweet potato pricing up from a year ago

North Carolina’s sweet potato harvest season is starting with fresh pricing up substantially compared with a year ago.

The transition between old-crop and new-crop sweet potatoes was apparently lending support to pricing in early September. Harvest in North Carolina should continue to be active into November, and prices should ease with expanding supply.

USDA shipment statistics indicated that North Carolina accounted for two-thirds of total U.S fresh sweet potato shipments of 272 (40,000 truckloads) for the week ending Sept. 17

As of Sept. 3, the average fob price for U.S. fresh sweet potatoes was $60.56 per cwt (hundredweight), up 20.6% compared with the same time a year ago, according to numbers collected by the USDA. The Sept. 3 fob price of for sweet potatoes of $60.56 per cwt was nearly 30% higher than the $46.70 per cwt price in early August.

The USDA reported the average advertised retail price for fresh sweet potatoes was 94 cents per pound, down 8.7% from the same week a year ago.