Sweet potatoes have grown in popularity among consumers due to their positive health effects, and as such, sweet potato output in the United States has increased dramatically over the previous decade.
However, the business faces substantial hurdles, including the danger of infectious disease outbreaks, higher cost of labor and unfavorable weather occurrences, all of which had a significant influence on the market.
Sweet Potato and its connection with North Carolina
The leading country in producing Sweet Potatoes is North Carolina. North Carolina gathered more than 1 million pounds (about 453,592 kg) of sweet potatoes in 2009.
Sweet potatoes, often known as yams, are easy to cultivate in North Carolina and were a staple in Native American diets. The Creek, Cherokee, and Saura Indian tribes likely depended on the vegetable for its high nutritional content. It was mainly to gain vitamins A and C and for the fact that they are low in fat.
The sweet potato market in North Carolina, which produces over forty per cent of the national supplies, is having to pay growing labor expenses, is dealing with backlogs, and is understaffed.
North Carolina produces 45% of the total national supply of sweet potatoes, while Mississippi comes in second with 20%. Sweet potatoes are grown on 46,000 acres (about twice the area of Cleveland, Ohio) of cropland in North Carolina.
Tar Heel producers are predominantly centered across and east of the Interstate 95 corridor, with Nash County farmers producing the most significant quantity of sweet potatoes in the state.
Crisis
In the past few years, sweet potato cultivation in the United States has faced a number of obstacles, including trade conflicts, changeable weather, and illness and pest issues, all of which might impact the industry’s growth.
For example, in recent years, a new nematode pest known for its guava root-knot nematodes (Meloidogyne enterolobii) was recently discovered in the southeastern states, potentially causing significant harm to sweet potato output and jeopardizing the long-term viability of the regional farming sector. Growers and government are both concerned about these issues.
The Thanksgiving meal is already projected to be pricey due to transportation and logistics concerns. According to some reports, the general cost of a conventional Thanksgiving feast may set a new
According to the NC Sweet Potato Commission, sweet potatoes must be gathered by hand due to their thin skin. NC sweet potato sales exceeded $375 million last year. However, there aren’t enough laborer’s this year to deliver the potatoes.
According to Nancy Torres, the operations supervisor of Battleboro Produce near Rocky Mount, there aren’t enough employees to operate the trucks that transport the potatoes to stores and ports.
According to Torres, her potatoes are transported, washed, and packaged through farms nearby. She claims that the workforce is considerably more costly while sweet potatoes are roughly the same price — $14 for a 40-pound carton. Fuel, freight, and other costs are additionally rising, she claims.
Wada Farms, a company with offices in Raleigh, uses Battleboro Produce as one of its shipping locations. Norman Brown, Wada Farms’ head of sweet potato sales in Raleigh, claimed he spends on trucks almost three times more than usual to transport the sweet potatoes throughout the country.
