“We’re down substantially from where we normally are,” said Thomas Joyner, president of Nash Produce. “The growers’ yields were down probably 35 percent, 40 percent across the board, it seems, and our inventories are down 30 percent to 35 percent across the board.”
Along with the shorter crop, the size profile is smaller and lacking in jumbos.
Growers faced a record lack of rain in June, followed by excessive rains in July that washed fertilizer from the fields. Growers re-applied fertilizer in the hopes of catching up on yields, but hurricanes Debbie and Helene prevented that from happening.
“By that point, the crop just didn’t yield what we thought it was going to yield,” Joyner said.
Some fields would have been more ideal in terms of yields and size of the sweet potatoes if they had set earlier, Joyner said, but any fields that set after mid-June produced “horrible” yields. Growers began harvesting in late August-early September, with hopes of seeing final production closer to average.
“We knew the yields would be down, but acres were up (over the previous season),” Joyner said. “At the end of the day, the potatoes never sized up, and we just don’t have a (normal) crop.”
Typically, sweet potato demand is highest for Thanksgiving, followed by Christmas and Easter. While that may hold true this season, the amount shipped will be down as growers and shippers set a strategy to manage supplies to September.
The North Carolina Sweetpotato Commission estimates a 20 percent to 30 percent dip in production.
“Over the last 10-plus years, there has been volume movement up and down because of weather conditions, global markets, the pandemic and its lingering impacts on the foodservice industry, as well as the continued reality of rising input costs and labor challenges,” according to a commission news release.
Michelle Grainger, executive director of the commission, said in the release that 2023 and 2024 “have proven to be challenging years for agriculture in North Carolina,” and that sweet potato growers have had to make hard decisions to stabilize the industry.
Strategic plans for low production
North Carolina is the leading producer of sweet potatoes in the U.S., with a typical crop supplying about 60 percent of the overall production. Joyner said it’s critical that marketers inform retailers, foodservice operators and other customers early and often about availability throughout the season.
Those customers will play a part in helping the industry maintain adequate supplies. For example, there’s no need for retailers to put sweet potatoes on ad during higher-demand periods, to help push inventory as when there’s an excess supply of sweet potatoes.
“At Nash Produce, we are here to work with our retailers, and everybody else too, to work through this,” Joyner said.
It will be imperative to have conversations with retailers and food service customers to modify their spec requirements.
With the size of the crop being smaller than usual, adjusting the size requirements will allow Nash Produce to utilize more of its inventory which will help with volume and bin yield to their growers.
Like growers, retailers are resilient when any crop is smaller or larger than usual, and work with the industry on managing supplies, he said.
“Right now, obviously, there’s a lot up in the air as far as how the season’s promotions, marketing, etc., is going to shake out, and we will be monitoring that through the year,” Joyner said.
It’s likely that growers will get an early jump on planting in 2025 to get more sweet potatoes to customers as the 2024 supplies dwindle, he said.
“We have the quality. We can put good potatoes out,” Joyner said. “We have to try to have those open discussions with customers, and just be honest about where we are. We want to do the best job we can, service them, and make it all work.”
