The drought that affected many parts of Brazil earlier this year has led to producers in the country seeing a lot of quality issues on sweet potatoes with "holes and scratches on the skin" causing a lot of rejections for exports to mainly Europe. Cassiano Berol, from the Brazilian exporter Agricola Plantar, "Sweet potatoes production is high currently, but the appearance of the skin has been affected by some pests due to the lack of rains at the beginning of the year."
He says the dry weather that led to dry soil has seen some pests take hold and cause the skin damage. "With the soil dried for months, microbacteria found water on the sweet potatoes themselves, and the results is the damages on the skin with holes and scratches on the skin. That's why currently we have to discard lots and lots of the sweet potatoes, just to pack the minority of pieces with nice skin that is suitable for export."
The recent heavy rain and mudslides in Norther-Eastern Brazil had a minor effect on sweet potato production. Berol says despite this setback in the skin condition, they are still able to export acceptable quality sweet potatoes to world markets. This includes Europe, Canada and their South American neighbours of Uruguay and Argentina.
A traditionally strong local market in Brazil also helps to curb losses when the quality is affected. "The Brazilian domestic market for sweet potatoes is also strong. We as Brazilian consumers do not care so much about these scratches and holes on the skin as European consumers do, as it is more related to CAT and not quality. This extra channel of sales is something that helps Brazil when our exports are a bit lower."
Berol says sweet potato exports from Brazil will continue strongly until the European summer is in full swing. "Sweet potato exports are still good in Brazil, but it tends to be lower during our winter in the months of June and July, while it is the European Summer at the same time."
For more information:
Cassiano Berol
Agricola Plantar
Tel: +55 11 9 9676-8378
Email: cassiano@agricola-plantar.com.br / frederico@agricola-plantar.com.br
www.agricola-plantar.com.br