Southern sweet potato crop on track for good year

Sweet potato harvest is gearing up in Southern states, and market conditions were steady in mid-August.

Eastern North Carolina 40-pound cartons of 2020 crop sweet potatoes were priced at mostly $16-18 per carton on Aug. 16, with demand moderate and prices steady.

Growing conditions in eastern North Carolina were favorable, with a good bit of wet weather followed by a long period of dry, warm days, said Rebecca Scott, grower accounting and marketing director for Nash Produce LLC , Nashville, N.C. 

Sweet potatoes love the warm weather and by mid-August were sizing up well. Harvest should begin by early September, she said.

2020 sweet potatoes from storage will be sold until the new crop begins, she said.

Supply outlook

Scott said Nash Produce’s acreage has increased this year. “We have been going up and up year after year,” Scott said. “We are ready to expand, and consumers are wanting more.”

The covington is the main sweet potato variety for the company,

but Nash Produce also markets the Japanese murasaki sweet potato and the bonita sweet potato variety. “There is a lot of interest in the different colors and varieties of sweet potatoes,” she said. The murasaki has a purple skin and a white-yellow interior. The bonita has a white interior and russet potato color on the outside. “Covington is still number one for us,” Scott said. “It grows very well here in North Carolina. And it has just a really, really pretty deep orange color.”

Packaging

Both bags and bulk are viable options for customers, with bags gaining momentum at the start of the pandemic.

For the past year, Nash Produce has offered a tray pack option with three to four sweet potatoes per sealed tray pack. Nash Produce primarily markets its crop from Maine to Florida, and also has a strong export business to Europe. “They do enjoy our sweet potatoes — they absolutely do,” Scott said. 

While export logistics have been challenging for some U.S. produce exporters, Scott said Nash Produce has not seen any big issues.

Charlotte Vick, partner and sweet potato manager for Vick Family Farms, Wilson, N.C., said the company expects an average crop, with harvest starting in a few weeks and continuing into early November. The company offers conventional and organic sweet potatoes.

Vick said that marketing has changed with the COVID-19 pandemic. “So much is done over the phone and e-mail these days,” she said. “I am ready to be back visiting with customers face to face and praying that the new year is much better in regard to COVID, and we do not have a repeat of last season with the new variants out there.”

Marshall Bailey, owner of Bruce Sweet Potato, Bailey, Miss., said the firm expects an average crop, with acreage steady from a year ago. Peak promotion opportunities are expected for the Thanksgiving holiday, he said.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture tracks sweet potato shipments from North Carolina, Louisiana, Mississippi and California. November 2020 accounted for 12% of total annual shipments, making it the top shipment month.

North Carolina accounted for 58% of shipments during November, followed in importance by 20% for Mississippi, 12% for California and 10% for Louisiana.

During the 2020-21 season, the USDA retail report said the top week for promoting sweet potatoes was Nov. 20, when 35,438 stores promoted sweet potatoes. The second-leading week for retail promotion was Dec. 18, which saw 30,194 stores promoting sweet potatoes. The third-leading week for promotions in the 2020-21 season was April 2, when 23,614 stores ran promotions.