Out of a competitive sweet potato year, the United States is back in the black as North Carolina’s sweet potato harvest begins.
North Carolina sweet potato farmers are digging up the crop in slow spurts due to boggy conditions. In the wake of a very hot summer, chilly weather and rains have set in this fall and made harvesting hard but promising.
According to most farmers, the rains are timely and not likely to damage the crop. The white, orange-fleshed and purple sweet potato cultivars look quite premium while still on the ground.
Given the soggy grounds, the harvest this year may go up to mid-November and the quality produce will certainly vie with the reigning Egypt’s orange-fleshed export champ.
Though harvesting has begun successfully in the state, producers are circumspect about how to compete with the still-ongoing Egyptian season. Egypt, which produces similar orange-fleshed cultivars as the U.S., usually has a lengthy July to January season.
The U.S. was the top exporter of sweet potatoes in 2022, with 27% of all global exports. Despite this prominence, the country tightened prices in 2023 and barely competes with the lower-priced Egyptian commodity in the European market.
Shrinking Acreage, high prices of Sweet Potatoes in NC
This comes at a time of reduced acreage, tight supplies, and the fresh memory of last season’s bounteous harvests in NC. In 2022, North Carolina’s fresh sweet potatoes cost $14.5 per hundredweight or $0.28 a kg in the wholesale market.
According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), acreage for 2022 in NC was 84,000 acres, of which 83,700 acres produced yields. This marked a marginal depreciation from the 105,000 acres in 2021. In 2023, however, acreage in the state will likely shrink even further by 20% due to weather-related events.
Floods and excessive heat contributed to some delay in sweet potato cultivation in 2023 countrywide. Various states reported rot on their farms after rain flooded their sweet potato fields and brought cultivation to a standstill. Tight supplies and uphill prices followed, of up to $863 per ton in the export price category.
Hence, farmers in Louisiana and North Carolina expect a bumper harvest later than usual this fall after that planting delay.
In the last week of September, 2023, a 1-pound (ib) bag of sweet potatoes in the US. cost $1.02. This was a rise by 6.3% from the September 15, 2023, prices. However, the price for September 23-30 matches the same one of fall, 2022 when a pound had cost $1.01.
The overall average price for United States’ sweet potatoes is $2 a kg, which tallies with the above recent market prices.