Nash Produce forecasts strong 2025 sweet potato harvest
Nash Produce forecasts strong 2025 sweet potato harvest
Though it is only the middle of summer, the North Carolina sweet potato crop is progressing well with grower-shippers expecting a bounce back year after adverse weather took a toll on the 2024 harvest.
“This year we are looking to get past the crop shortages that we experienced last year,” said Robin Narron, who is director of marketing for Nash Produce.
In 2024, three hurricanes — Debby, Helene and Isaac — made landfall in North Carolina. In addition, an unnamed tropical rainstorm also hit the southern state in mid-September, further contributing to the loss of fresh produce production.
“We were down 25-30 percent in volume,” said Narron of the sweet potato production.
She added that the crop, which typically begins harvest around Labor Day and is sold from storage over the following 12 months, was still large enough to supply Nash’s customers throughout the year. In fact, the 2024 crop is still filling the Nashville, NC-based company’s foodservice, wholesale and retail orders. “Typically, the crop is harvested beginning in September and then has to be cured,” she said. “Usually, we won’t start shipping the new crop until Thanksgiving.”
Though last year’s crop was short, Nash Produce has stretched it by saving supplies for its regular customers, offering fewer pounds on the open market. The sweet potato FOB price has also been higher this year because of the short supplies, which naturally reduces demand just a bit and has allowed for 12 months of sales while waiting for the 2025 crop to mature.
Narron said sweet potatoes remain a commodity that continues to experience strong demand and growing popularity, “we grow all our product locally and utilize multiple varieties and multiple packs and size options for our customers, especially our retail customers. Most of our foodservice customers buy sweet potatoes in bulk.”
Nash Produce does not process its sweet potatoes into fries but Narron said the increase in restaurants offering that menu item has clearly been a category driver at foodservice. She noted that sweet potatoes have a strong core of devotees with different regions of the country having their own menu and varietal favorites.
For example, she said the Murasaki sweet potato, also known as the Japanese sweet potato (though it was developed in Louisiana), has dark purple skin and creamy white flesh. Known for its starchy, nutty flavor and drier, firmer texture compared to traditional orange-fleshed sweet potatoes, Narron said it does especially well with consumers in Florida and the Southeast. “In the South, sweet potatoes with brown sugar, butter and cinnamon are a favorite,” she said. “In Tennessee and places further west, roasted sweet potatoes do very well (as a menu item).”
Nash Produce President Thomas Joyner will be at the International Fresh Produce Association’s Foodservice Conference touting this year’s crop and meeting both old and new customers. “I believe we have been at the show every year since it began,” Narron said. “This year we are in booth No. 200.”
Though retail sales do make up the majority of Nash Produce’s sweet potato business, Narron said foodservice is a very important slice of the sweet potato pie, if you will.
She added that participating in the various produce shows is an important part of the company’s marketing strategy. “We attend a lot of shows,” she said. “It’s great to make that face-to-face contact with long-standing customers and new customers as well as potential customers. Our next show is the New England Produce Show.”
Returning to the crop forecast for 2025, Narron said while the crop is still in the ground, it is difficult to make a definitive statement about supplies, but the guys in the field looking at the plants everyday are very optimistic. She added that the company increased its acreage in 2024 though final production did not reflect that because of the weather issues. She said projections call for volume slightly greater than what was expected last year, but hopefully they will reach that estimate this season. “So far this year the rain we have received has been good for the crop,” Narron said, hoping that hurricane season skips North Carolina this year.
