An annual Research Field Day is among the activities the Benson-based North Carolina Sweetpotato Commission has scheduled for sweetpotato growers during the fall/winter season.
California-based grower-packer-shipper Bako Sweet has reported a promising start to its sweetpotato season and anticipates a slightly higher yield than 2022.
North Carolina sweetpotato growers are hopeful that a continuing drop in acreage will lead to tighter supplies and stronger markets, as well as help them cope with inflation and skyrocketing costs.
The North Carolina Sweetpotato Commission, made up of 400 sweetpotato growers along with packers, processors and business associates, has launched a new e-cookbook titled, "Sweet Celebrations: Hispanic Heritage Month."
The Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission, Mississippi Sweet Potato Council and North Carolina SweetPotato Commission share updates on upcoming initiatives and events.
The brand says the revamped website features an enhanced experience for shoppers while serving as a resource to highlight sweet potatoes from the southern San Joaquin Valley of California.
Sweet potatoes lead the list of top-dollar fruit and vegetable commodities in North Carolina and South Carolina, according to USDA agricultural statistics for 2022.
Demand for organic sweet potatoes continues to be strong, says Kristi Hocutt, director of sales and marketing for Sims, N.C.-based Triple J Produce Inc.
Wayne, Ark.-based Matthews Ridgeview Farms offers both bulk and value-added packaging for its considerable sweet potato volume, says Autumn Campbell, sales manager for the company.
Bakersfield, Calif.-based Country Sweet Produce’s Bako Sweet label has redesigned its conventional and organic mesh bags as well as its Single Sweet stickers.
North Carolina sweet potatoes check all the boxes for today’s consumers, says Michelle Grainger, executive director of the North Carolina SweetPotato Commission.
The biggest highlight of the marketing campaign for Durham, N.C.-based Happy Dirt sweet potatoes this spring is education around the product and the growers, said Taylor Meadows, marketing coordinator.
Robin Narron, marketing director and sales support for Nash Produce, says that sweet potato movement can increase up to 20% during the Easter sales period.
Bakersfield, Calif.-based Country Sweet Produce’s Bako Sweet is celebrating American Heart Month, National Sweet Potato Month, Valentine’s Day and Cook a Sweet Potato Day in February.
North Carolina sweet potato acreage is down but the quality is very good, reports Norman Brown, director of sweet potato sales for Wada Farms Marketing Group, Raleigh, N.C.
Sand Candy Produce LLC will feature good volume of sweet potatoes during the 2022-2023 marketing season, says Delbert Bland, Sand Candy partner and owner of Glennville, Ga.-based Bland Farms owner.
MONTEREY, Calif. — Despite very dry conditions, the North Carolina sweet potato crop for Vick Family Farms is looking good, says Charlotte Vick, partner and sales manager for the Wilson, N.C. produce marketer.
Bakersfield, Calif.-based Country Sweet Produce’s Bako Sweet brand will offer retailers plenty of merchandising efforts in the historically quiet season for the sweet potato category.
To put the magnitude of North Carolina’s sweet potato crop in context, picture more than 13,000 refrigerated truckloads lining up to distribute the crop all across the U.S.
Wynne, Ark.-based Matthews Ridgeview Farms is the state’s largest grower/shipper of sweet potatoes, and the firm is expanding acreage again this year, says sales manager Autumn Campbell.
Peebles Organic, Augusta, Ark., is a USDA-certified organic vegetable operation that farms about 2,000 acres, said Shawn Peebles, owner and general manager.
Part of that hard-won dominance is due to the state’s perfect combination of soils and temperatures that sweet potatoes need, says the North Carolina Department of Agriculture.
U.S. sweet potato area harvested in 2021 totaled 152,700 acres (data collected only in California, Mississippi and North Carolina), off just 2% from 155,300 acres in 2020 and 4% higher than 146,700 acres in 2019.
Wynne, Ark.-based Matthews Ridgeview Farms is growing and has no plans to slow down, said Autumn Campbell, sales manager, speaking at the SEPC Southern Exposure expo in early March.
The Baton Rouge-based Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission is celebrating its 70-year anniversary in 2022, a milestone that doesn’t even tell the complete story of the roots of sweet potatoes in the state.
The North Carolina SweetPotato Commission is celebrating 60 years and a big part of that celebration has come from RFD TV’s Chip Carter’s new TV series called “Where the Food Comes From.”
Country Sweet Produce’s Bako Sweet sweet potatoes are now certified by the American Heart Association just in time to celebrate American Heart Month and National Sweet Potato Month..
The North Carolina SweetPotato Commission (NCSPC) celebrated its long-awaited Eat Sweet Restaurant Week where they invited chefs across the state to “cook” up creative ways to elevate the State’s vegetable.
The Government of South Korea has requested the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to authorize the importation of Sweet Potato for consumption into the United States and Territories.
When I think of sweet potatoes, I think of calling my mom back in college, asking for her sweet potato biscuit recipe, which was my nana’s recipe written in her one-room-schoolhouse-neat teacherly cursive script.