Photo: Nash Produce
“Volume now is consistent—we’re getting into our third peak demand time which is Easter,” says Tami Long of Nashville, N.C.-based Nash Produce. Long notes Nash’s supplies are slightly above what it harvested last year. “It’s picked up a little bit now and will ebb off after Easter and be a steady stream,” she says.
“We’re in good shape to keep us through the summer and have supplies going into the fall until we get into the new crop season,” says Jeff Thomas of Scott Farms in Lucama, N.C. “We have a few more acres from the 2017 crop year but our demand is up as well. From our supplies standpoint, we’re looking at being on track to being able to switch over almost perfectly to where we want to be.”
Photo: Scott Farms
More growers
Supplies are good throughout the industry in part due to the number of growers involved. “Along with a strong crop, there are a number of farmers popping up,” says Long. In addition to that, some existing growers have also expanded their sweet potato acreage.
Both Long and Thomas note that the push is on for sweet potatoes to be seen as something other than a holiday-related food tied to Thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter and that it has potential to be used in desserts or as a main dish, but also via by-products such as juices and more. And that change is coming, given what growers are seeing in consumer demand.
Photo: Nash Produce
Different sweet potato ideas
That demand includes being open to new ways of consuming sweet potatoes. In fact, Scott is two months out from introducing its Scott Farms Sweet Potato Chips, currently sold in the United Kingdom, in the North Carolina marketplace first, and nationally by year end. It has also formed a partnership with the Coastal Plain League, a summer college development baseball league, to be the exclusive chip supplier in its stadiums thanks to the very same trend. “They wanted to provide healthier options because they had so many young people coming through the stadium and they wanted to provide healthier options,” says Thomas.
Photo: Scott Farms
Pricing shift
So while demand remains strong for sweet potatoes—in Nash’s case it’s seeing particular strength in Murasaki, the purple skinned/white fleshed Japanese sweet potato—as well as organics, pricing is down this year.
“Sweet potatoes prices are extremely low in price right now—we’re down probably 10 percent lower than last year,” says Long, noting that Nash has seen an estimated 30 percent drop in prices over the past few years. However both Long and Thomas predict a pricing correction coming around. “It’s not sustainable. If farmers can’t make money, they won’t plant sweet potatoes and the demand is going up. Demand will be there so the price will come back up but probably some of the smaller farmers will get out of sweet potatoes for some time and plant crops that they can make money on,” says Long.
For more information:
Tami Long
Nash Produce
Tel: +1-252-0443-6011 x231
tamilong@nashproduce.com
www.nashproduce.com
Jeff Thomas
Scott Farms
Tel: 919-284-4030
jeff@scottfarms.com
www.scottfarms.com