This year marked the first time ever that Nature’s Way, a US grower and supplier of sweet potatoes, had ever been present at Fruit Logistica Berlin, either exhibiting or visiting. “The reason we came is to look at the possibilities of exporting North Carolina sweet potatoes into Europe. The NC sweet potato is the most common type to be sent over to Europe from the US, so our company positioned itself a couple of years ago to become active on the market by increasing acreage and building two facilities and a new packing line, just for this purpose.” said Nature's Way President, Mark Crawford.
Although it is still early days for the company's entry into the European market, Mark said that they are already in position to be able to supply once the demand starts.
Sizing up a different market
“We are currently in the learning stage, the very infant learning stage. It seems like the most common place to come in is by boat to Rotterdam, but there are different importing companies to choose from there. At home, we tend to deal directly with customers, so we are not opposed to this different way of doing business, but we want to learn our way through it. Hopefully we will make some good connections over the next 3 days at Fruit Logisitica.”
Mark said that they had spent the 2 days before the fair, going around to various supermarkets and chain stores to see what the offering was of sweet potatoes. “From what other people in North Carolina are doing and from what I have seen while in Germany, they are putting the potatoes in 8 kilo boxes, along with other different sized boxes, which is much different than what we do domestically. At home they are put in two piece boxes with lids and here they are all open top where they are set out on the shelf.”
Sizing will not be an issue for the company because it is already equipped with all sorts of electronic sizers to do all of that, so it is just a matter of putting them in a different container that they want. A majority of supermarket chains in Europe demand a smaller size profile which Mark feels is advantageous to the company because most of the demand domestically is for a larger size which would make it a good mix.
Family run business
This year, 2016, marks the 39th year for family owned and run Nature's Way. The years of experience have meant that the company is very familiar with the product, and is able to grow, pack, store and ship their sweet potatoes year round.
Once harvested in August-October, the sweet potatoes last for 12 months in storage. There is a special storage method unique to the US, which Mark believes makes their sweet potatoes sweeter and more desirable to the European market compared to potatoes from Israel or Spain. The company grows the Covington variety, which is specific to NC. The varieties in Europe tend to be longer and have a thinner skin.
“Our capability to serve Europe is 4 container loads per week, so we are ready to start up with someone. We are going to be selective when deciding who we do business with. I want to do research, our company usually deals direct and we look more for a partnership than a customer base. We want to bring some of our American principles that we have developed and grow the business with the customer first. We would work with them for putting the product on sale during a certain holiday or for a certain market and they need a discounter price to do that and be competitive, that is the top of marketing abilities that we have and we are prepared to move forward with that.”
The food service sector is a big part of the company’s business domestically and is something they would also be interested in within Europe. Mark said that they will probably start their venture into Europe with an importer. The company would like to move slowly into the food sector so they can learn more about requirements, such as sizing regulations.
“I am not interested in starting in a large way in food service, I want to start very small. I want to do it right the first time. I don’t want to send over 20 containers and have the potatoes be 2oz too large or too small due to the language barrier or difficulties with the documentation.“
The company grows their sweet potatoes without the use of certain substances which are not allowed in the EU, so Marks said that transition from the domestic to the European market will just be a matter of documentation.
