The North American sweet potato season started at Dutch produce wholesaler, Roveg, two weeks ago. "The cultivation had its share of rain, so we started cautiously. You can, after all, only get off to a good start once. However, I am pleasantly surprised by this product's quality", says Roveg's Martin Oudenes. "We began with a few containers but are now going to increase the volumes."
Meanwhile, the Egyptian season for the orange-fleshed sweet potatoes is going to keep going for a week or two. Then, the season will continue with the white-fleshed variety until January. "Egypt had a very good season. They had high-quality, hand-grubbed sweet potatoes", says Martin.
The Spanish season will also continue for a month or two. "However, it has also rained a lot there up to now. The machine-harvested sweet potatoes from this country have slightly more skin damage."
"Hopefully, the demand will increase even more as the weather gets colder. Traditionally, toward Christmas, more sweet potatoes are eaten. Besides this, the demand for sweet potatoes is increasing annually. This product is experiencing nice growth. This has resulted in an increasing number of players finding themselves on this market", he says.
"The price for Spanish and Egyptian sweet potatoes is currently at around EUR1 per kg. The price for the American product is at the EUR1,20-1,30 per kg level", continues Martin.
"America has an excellent local market. Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter are a feast when it comes to consuming sweet potatoes. You even hear of companies that are having a hard time finding enough product to send to Europe. Our supplier, however, has sufficient volumes available", says Martin.
"In addition to the countries named, there are also a number of countries who are experimenting with growing sweet potatoes. This is happening in the Netherlands, Belgium, and Germany. However, these remain niche markets. When you are working with larger programs, this type of production just disrupts the market. But, granted, to begin farming you have to start small. With all products, the farmers started on a small scale", concludes Martin.
