Coming off a short crop last season and dealing with strong demand domestically and abroad, North Carolina's sweet potato growers are hoping this year's crop can be swiftly harvested. But constant rains along with cold weather could delay harvesting. Such adverse conditions could prevent the state's growers from harvesting a full crop.
Earlier this month, reports suggested an overage of planted sweet potato acreage in North Carolina. Ceccarelli cautioned that for the first time in over 15 years, as the crop 2013 terminated earlier than the new 2014 crop, as a result no overlap between both seasons occurred. “Contrary to previous years when we would still have old crop cured to offer clients, most would prefer paying extra for a cured sweet potato offering longer shelf life versus a new crop uncured sweet potato hence allowing us to store and cure the new crop for our Thanksgiving and export business but this year we had no choice but to sell and ship only new crop uncured sweet potatoes as that was the only sweet potato we had to offer. Therefore any excess acreage planted will be by far already consumed!” said Ceccarelli.
“The quality of this crop looks good,” said Steven Ceccarelli of Farm Fresh Produce. “But we've been getting more rain, which keeps all North Carolina growers from getting any work done.” North Carolina's sandy soil helps with drainage but since the state has sustained heavy rains within the last 2 weeks, Ceccarelli is worried about certain parts of fields getting waterlogged. His biggest concern is that continuous rainfall will prevent any farm equipment or workers from actually getting any work done in the fields resulting in much shorter harvest window before our first frost! “Once we get our first killing frost, it’s game over! ” said Ceccarelli.
“Everyone in the industry tried to get into the harvest early, because we were short from last year's crop, but we've been getting a lot of rain along with cold weather, so it's hard to harvest,” said Ceccarelli. “I hope it doesn't affect us from a supply standpoint, because we've gotten off to a good start aside from this.”
Ceccarelli is hoping they get windows of respite from the rain so they can put up a good crop. Given that there's strong demand on the export market and very strong demand at home, there's pressure to have a good harvest. The ability of growers to have a good harvest, however, still depends on the weather and availability of labour.
“If it gets below freezing and there are still sweet potatoes in the ground, we can't harvest them,” said Ceccarelli. “A lot is hanging in the balance, so it's a crucial time.” Going forward, Farm Fresh recently hired Bobby Daughtry to round out Farm Fresh's sales staff, and the move has given his staff a combined 30 years of experience exporting sweet potatoes. If weather permits and there's a good crop, Ceccarelli will appreciate the added help when dealing with the robust demand that abounds.
“The objective is to expand to match the ever expanding customer needs,” said Ceccarelli. “That way we can supply customers with continued good quality and service and try to be the best at what we do.”
Source - http://www.freshplaza.com/
