This year's sweet potato planting campaign has been delayed in the Spanish region of Andalusia due to concerns about water scarcity. "However, recent rainfall has allowed us to resume the campaign, and things are looking better than they did at the beginning of the year," says Miguel Guerra, of Plantas de Boniato Miguel Guerra. "Normally, the planting would begin in March, but this year plants have only been delivered in significant quantities from April 4 onwards."
Following last year's experience, "the acreage devoted to sweet potato cultivation is declining due to the water scarcity issues, at least in Andalusia. However, a new region has emerged as a very interesting sweet potato producer: Alicante," says Miguel. "We are getting more clients from there, and in our search for new areas to cultivate sweet potatoes, we are also seeing a rising number of producers moving to some areas of Portugal."
Regarding varieties, "we see larger quantities of white sweet potatoes being cultivated, as prices have been good last year, both in the market and at origin, although their share is still smaller than that of traditional varieties. In the domestic market, the California variety remains popular. It is the most consumed in Spain, both fresh and roasted. Meanwhile, the Covington and Beauregard are the ones mostly cultivated for the export market," says Miguel Guerra.
"In Europe, the sweet potato acreage seems to be following the trend of previous years. We expect the reduction of the acreage to continue being most noticeable in Andalusia. In this context, everything points to sweet potato prices possibly being quite good."
For more information:
Plantas de Boniato Miguel Guerra
Carretera Almería 117 conjunto mediterráneo
29793 El Morche Málaga, Spain
Tel.: +34 626 95 38 64
info@plantasdeboniato.com
https://plantasdeboniato.com