The California sweet potato harvest got a late start to harvest this season. “We were about two to three weeks late and it’s all weather-related,” says Larelle Miller of Quail H Farms. “It was late plantings. We had horrible weather during our hot bed planting in March and April, with cold wet and windy weather and that carried into delayed planting for the 2023 crop in May and June. When it came time to harvest in July/August, it was really hot and windy and we were a little concerned our yields would suffer.”
However, as harvest has gotten underway, yields are good and Miller says sizing is also in the ballpark of where Quail H Farms needs it to be. “Our yields overall are up probably 10-15 percent over last year. So things look positive for the 2023 crop,” she says, noting the sweet potato industry as a whole has largely cleaned up 2022’s crop and is now shipping fresh crop sweet potatoes. Quail H Farms hopes to finish the harvest by the end of the month.
Earlier Thanksgiving
As for demand, it’s good too and in fact, it’s a bit stronger than demand last year at this time. “Thanksgiving is earlier so I think we’re starting to see a little bit of that already. People getting ready for the holiday pull,” she says.
Pricing is also up over last year though Miller says it needs to be, given that sweet potato growers and shippers have absorbed increased growing costs over the last three to five years.
Looking ahead, she thinks pricing will generally stay strong. “The sweet potato industry often feels the need to lower their price point to generate sales. Everybody buys sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving anyways so I don’t think we need to do that,” says Miller. “However you’ll see a small drop because that’s what people do and after that, I think it will strengthen up again. It won’t go to the levels where it was five years ago and I don’t even think it will go to levels where it was last year for Thanksgiving.”
For more information:
Larelle Miller
Quail H. Farms
Tel: +1 (209) 394-8001
[email protected]