However, the current demand for sweet potatoes in Europe is uncertain: growth potential may be limited as the USA already adequately supplies the European market.
The African market is also undergoing a tangible boom. Africa holds the current development prospects for the global sweet potato market: here sweet potatoes form part of the daily diet. The main market players are the Sub-Saharan countries. The favourable cultivation conditions, and an increasing demand for the product, are the two main factors currently enhancing the expansion of the sweet potato market in these areas.
Per capita consumption in each African country exceeds the global average, at 14kg/person. Rwanda and Angola indicate the maximum consumption figures, at 89 kg/person and 87 kg/person, respectively. The countries in Africa operate exclusively on the domestic market, as is the case with China: product demand is met and supplied by domestic resources.
In Nigeria, the second country in the world in terms of sweet potato output, the average annual rate of growth from 2007-2014 reached +5.2%. It was followed by Tanzania, with a rate of growth of +14.2%, and Ethiopia, with +26.3%.In the medium term, African sweet potato producers can continue to increase production yield, given the proximity to other developing countries in the African continent and the relatively unsaturated domestic market.
African countries are currently lagging behind Chinese figures for sweet potato output, both in terms of acreage and product yield. The sweet potato yield in most African countries is 2-3 times lower than the Chinese figure, and in most countries, this yield is not increasing.
State regulation and investment are needed to advance that product output. The economic situation in most of the countries, however, is currently too inauspicious to secure the agricultural sector's tangible development.Sweet potato demand in African countries exceeds output capacity, when factors such as population growth and food problems are taken into consideration. At the same time, the industry does not, as yet, have the capacity to provide enough supply, although this is now indicating an upward trend.
Therefore, Africa represents a probable sales market for the Chinese sweet potato producers, should domestic product demand in China slump further. The Chinese producers' prices are also highly competitive with regard to the African market. Competing with the African market will be difficult, however, when logistics costs are factored in. This being the case, if the average producer price for sweet potatoes in China in 2014 was 257.5 USD/tonne (approx. equal to the global average), then the average producer price in Nigeria, Africa's largest consumer, reached 317.5 USD/tonne, some 22% higher than the global price figure. At the same time, prices were significantly lower in Ethiopia (98.6 USD/tonne), and Tanzania (151.3 USD/tonne).
Increased sweet potato trade between China and economically-developed countries is highly unlikely. Factors that would prevent any trade development include the regional presence of similar root-type crops and sweet potato consumption requirements in those places where the product is cultivated. The prospect of making a singular supply of sweet potatoes in its potential capacity as an exotic product to the 'gourmet' market is now a niche that is already full.
In the near future, the fast-paced African market will gradually reach a par with China in terms of consumption, thereby becoming a prominent prospective sales market for Chinese sweet potato producers.
For more information:
Inna Ivonina
IndexBox Marketing
Tel: +44 20 3239 3063