Pandemic or not, sweet potato marketers expect a boost from spring holidays such as Easter.
And possibly because of COVID-19, sweet potato sales have been doing well the past year as consumers opt for the affordable, shelf-stable, nutritious, versatile root.
“That definitely made sweet potatoes sell more,” said Rebecca Scott, grower accounting and marketing director at Nash Produce, Nashville, N.C.
Conventional sweet potatoes were on advertisements at 3,146 stores at a weighted average price of 88 cents per pound the week of Feb. 26, compared to 1,625 store ads at 97 cents the same week last year, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Marketing Service.
A rainy February could delay the bedding of the 2021 crop, which typically starts in March in North Carolina, but most growers and marketers have more than enough of the 2020 crop in storage to offer in the meantime.
California, Louisiana, Mississippi and North Carolina are some of the biggest sweet potato-producing states. Once they’re cured, sweet potatoes can be stored under proper conditions and shipped all year long.
Vick Family Farms, Wilson, N.C., was midway through packing its 2020 crop in late February, with excellent quality and high-yielding pack-outs, said Charlotte Vick, partner and sales and packing manager.
The 2020 harvest yields were down 10% to 20% in different areas of North Carolina because of rain, and there could be a little shortage in the summer.
“Demand has been very good. The foodservice sector is definitely down across the entire world, so our processing and foodservice packs were down,” Vick said.
“We were able to transition some of that over into retail. I do see some foodservice picking back up as things open now.”
Besides increasing its organic line in 2020 and 2021, Vick’s retail customers asked the company to create tray packs and to offer more steamer bags.
“All definitely convenience items, for sure,” Vick said.
“It all happened so fast (that) we are using a generic label for now. We are excited to see the new items on the shelves. And offering the consumer more lines just gets us more space in the store, which always helps sales to increase.”
Sales of bulk, loose sweet potatoes are still doing well, Vick and Scott said.
“We have noticed more sales of our mesh bags,” Scott said. “The 3- to 5-pound pound bags have been popular — it’s easy grab-and-go — and our microwaveables.”
But now the sales spikes in different pack styles have evened out to what they were before March 2020, she said.
Nash sells mostly the covington orange variety, but a few of the company’s growers produce the purple-skinned, white-fleshed murasaki, as well as bonita varieties, which look like russets.
Beauregard is the main variety of sweet potato for Topashaw Farms Packing, Vardaman, Miss. Topashaw also had a spike in microwaveable and bagged sweet potatoes, without a drop in loose bulk either.
“We’ve been very, very blessed to get in grocery stores with higher capacity and to maintain that,” Melissa Edmondson, Topashaw co-owner with husband Joe, said through sales staff.
While some of North Carolina’s new crop typically starts about September, some growers in Arkansas usually start shipping the new crop in mid-October.
“As long as everything stays on schedule,” said Autumn Campbell, who handles sales at Matthews Ridgeview Farms, Wynne, Ark. “Thankfully, the pandemic hasn’t had a huge impact on us. With us following proper regulations and procedures, we have had minimal issues, as far as the pandemic.”
Labor, on the other hand, is a challenge not yet overcome for sweet potato growers nationwide, including at Campbell’s company and Vick’s.
Vick said she’s worried about what effect increased rates will have on all the H-2A labor she needs for planting and harvesting in 2021.
“All of our input costs are up, therefore there isn’t anywhere for the increased hourly wage to come from except increasing the price of our commodities,” Vick said.
Also, there are 60 full-time employees in the packing shed, and positions are hard to keep filled.
There’s definitely a labor shortage.
“If it wasn’t for the H-2A program, we would struggle to be able to farm, for sure. We continue to look at ways to be able to decrease our staff and mechanize our harvest and packing,” Vick said.
“However, it is still a very labor-intensive crop, and in order to have good quality, hand-harvesting is the best way to do it now.”
