Is a tougher economy sending consumers back to root vegetables? Could be. "Demand for root vegetables is at an all-time high," says Harris S. Cutler of Race-West Company, Inc. "There's been so much talk about food inflation and comparing market basket information from four or five years ago to now. The best value remains potatoes, onions, carrots, and sweet potatoes. Many families on all parts of the economic spectrum are relying more and more on these staple products that still represent a tremendous value."
He also says strong demand for these items also doesn't seem to be easing anytime soon. "Shipments reported by the USDA are way ahead of last year by truckloads and with that type of movement, you can see that people are really getting back to root vegetables and enjoying them," says Cutler.
As for the 2024-2025 crop, Cutler says a high-quality crop of potatoes is expected from its farms in New Brunswick, Canada, and Washington State. "Our yields are good and the percentage of number ones is better than our five-year average. Pricing will be reasonable all year," he says.
Positive outlook for onions
Meanwhile, onions from New York, Eastern Canada, and the Pacific Northwest all had seasons of good growing conditions. In turn, that produced strong yields and the quality going into storage is strong. "Like potatoes, we'll have lots of high-quality onions with lots of reasonable prices for the whole storage crop season."
However, the outlook for sweet potatoes remains largely unknown for now after Hurricane Helene which affected North Carolina–a key sweet potato growing region. "Up until the last two weeks, it appeared that we would have one of the largest yields of North Carolina sweet potatoes in recent times. Even though the acreage was down, we've had so much rain that it's still a mystery as to what we'll wind up with in sweet potatoes," says Cutler. "It's too early to tell where we'll be with the crop for the 2024-2025 season and we'll have a better indication in three weeks when we try to harvest in fields that are overcome with too much water."
As for pricing, Cutler says potatoes are between $18-$22/50 lbs.; small packages of potatoes are $15-$16/50 lbs.; onions are $15-$20/50 lbs.; "Prices are a little easier than last year at this point. I see a consistent season with consistently reasonable prices," he says.
For more information:
Harris S. Cutler
Race-West Company, Inc.
Tel: +1 (570) 586-5700
[email protected]
https://www.race-west.com/