Sweet potato supply from North Carolina, the state that is responsible for two thirds of US sweet potato production, is down significantly this season. “The crop is down about 30 to 40 percent in acres, which translates into a production decrease of 30-40 percent,” says Norman Brown with Wada Farms. “It’s a decrease I’ve never seen before,” he mentioned. High input costs to grow and harvest the crop have forced growers to cut down on acreage and switch to other crops. In addition to smaller acreage, production volume was also impacted by a cold snap early on. “Due to cold weather, we couldn’t transplant as early as we would have liked. The cold weather was followed by a period of awfully dry weather this summer,” said Brown.
As a result of low supplies, prices have made a pretty big jump over last year. Right now, the price for an 18 kg. carton is $19 whereas the same carton sold for $14 last year. “I don’t see prices coming down anytime soon,” mentioned Brown. “We’re now in the middle of the Thanksgiving push and are seeing very decent movement. Therefore, I expect prices to stay high.” Sweet potatoes are a favorite Thanksgiving dinner food.
Traditionally, US sweet potatoes were heavily exported to Europe. However, in recent years, European countries increasingly replaced US sweet potatoes with cheaper imports from countries like Egypt. Also, some European countries are becoming more successful in growing sweet potatoes themselves. As a result, export prices came down and haven’t been favorable in recent years. “In fact, domestic prices have been higher,” Brown shared. With the risks involved in exporting, many US sweet potato growers have become increasingly domestically focused. “We concentrate on the domestic market as much as possible,” shared Brown. “In a year with short supplies and high equitable crop value, US growers will limit supply chain risks with export and focus on domestic distribution for the 2023 storage season.”
For more information:
Norman Brown
Wada Farms
Tel: +1 (919) 578-4020
[email protected]
www.wadafarms.com