Harvest has begun in North Carolina on the state's sweet potato crop. For 3 Star Produce, it began last week which is later compared to others in the industry. "However it's all dependent on where everybody was standing on their crop going into this new season," says 3 Star Produce's Josh Wright.
So far, he is happy with the crop. "The growing period was a little different than past years in the things that we've dealt with. It was really dry to start with and then it's been really wet as of the last week of July," he says, adding that of course, the western part of the state was also hit by last week's Hurricane Helene.
The recent wetter conditions in North Carolina mean harvest hasn't been as consistent as hoped. "Though the crop looks good and due to the drought, the potatoes didn't have a lot of insect pressure. So far the quality has been outstanding. It is though a bit early to tell what the overall yield will be," Wright says, adding that reports are indicative that there will be losses of sweet potatoes in the state of up to about 20 percent. That's due to a mix of factors including the fact that the crop took a bit longer to catch on due to the dry conditions and then wetness at the end of the growing period. "That said, the farmers in North Carolina do a really good job of taking care of fields and trying to combat the weather issues we have."
As for acreage, 3 Star Produce, a relatively new company, has increased its acreage. Now in its second year, it's up to 3,000 acres to cover its current customer base. "Then we hope that all of our customers grow their business and we want to be able to take on new customers as well," he says.
Sweet potato varieties
The company's packing house is based in Sims, NC., grows and it ships both Covington and Murasaki sweet potatoes. While Covington is still its largest item, the purple-skinned white fleshed Murasaki is also seeing both growing demand and supply. "It's expanding into markets in the midwest, Canada, and Europe as well. Most of the demand for them had been on the West Coast but our growers here on the East Coast have done a tremendous job of making sure the quality is there. It's a delicate item–any problems on that flesh will show through," Wright says.
Meanwhile, on demand, the company distributes approximately 20 percent internationally and the remaining 80 percent is for domestic distribution. However overseas pricing has softened considerably. "There is a lot of pressure from other growing regions including Egypt and Spain as well as France and the Netherlands. Pricing over there has just plummeted to the point that it's not really favorable to farmers," Wright says.
That said, pricing generally this year is expected to be stable, if not be up slightly with global demand and supply in mind. "Once Egypt finishes up for example–and they have a very different product than the U.S.–demand quickly turns towards the U.S. for product. There are a lot of companies that still take U.S. product year-round because we have consistency but sometimes prices get to the point where they look elsewhere," he says.
For more information:
Josh Wright
3 Star Produce
Tel: 1+919-223-8555
https://3starproduce.com/