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Louisiana Sweet Potatoes Market Snapshot* The U.S. Department of Agriculture was reporting the following prices on Louisiana sweet potatoes:
40-pound cartons, U.S. No. 1 Grade orange types, mostly $17. * Prices from the USDA's Fruit & Vegetable Market News, Oct. 13. Louisiana sweet potato grower-shippers are in wait-and-see mode following two weeks of rainy weather that brought the fall harvest to a halt. Clear conditions were forecast for the next several days, and growers were eager to get back into their fields to see if they lost any of their crops. Earl Roy Sweet Potato Co. LLC in Hessmer got an early start on the harvest the second week of August and had dug 70% of its crop by the time the recent rain descended on the area, said manager Johnny Roy. If the precipitation stops now, area growers still will be in good shape, Roy said. Rainfall has been sporadic - an inch here and an inch there - he said, but it's been muddy enough to keep workers out of the fields. All he needs is nine more days of decent weather to harvest his crop. Quality and sizing have been very good, he said, thanks in part to rain in early July that helped make up for a very dry June. "It made for a pretty good crop," he said. The company should have a "pretty good supply" of sweet potatoes for Thanksgiving, Roy said. He anticipates a strong season overall because rain in Mississippi and northern Louisiana could trigger tight markets. Prices have been fairly good so far. Roy said he is selling 40-pound cartons for $17-18. "That's a fair price," he said, and he expects prices to go even higher. No matter how this year shapes up, it is bound to be better than last season, when two hurricanes virtually wiped out the company's crop. "Last year, I don't think I sold 50 loads of sweet potatoes," Roy said. He's already exceeded that mark this year. Dawson Farms LLC in Delhi has not harvested since Oct. 1, said sales manager Roy Hansen. "They say it might clear up by Friday," he said earlier this week. "But then we've got to wait for the field to dry out." The rain put harvesting behind schedule, but Hansen said the company should be able to catch up, thanks in part to 12 four-row diggers that can move quickly through the fields. "Other areas are worse off than we are," said Hansen, who reported that quality of the 20% of the crop that has been harvested so far has been excellent. He said the delayed harvest should bring on good sizes. Dawson Farms will have sweet potatoes available for Thanksgiving, but Hansen said supplies won't be excessive. Conditions were similar at Garber Farms in Iota. "The harvest has been delayed, and we're waiting to see what it looks like when we get in the fields," said partner Matt Garber. Size and quality have been fine so far, he said. There just haven't been enough harvest days. Ironically, drought conditions delayed the crop in June, he said, but dry weather did not affect the quality of the tubers. Garber did not expect the company to be inundated by sweet potatoes over the next couple of months. "We'll have a shortage for Thanksgiving," he said. About 50% of the sweet potato crop in southern Louisiana has been harvested, said Rene Simon, executive director of the Baton Rouge-based Louisiana Sweet Potato Commission, and he said about 30% of the northern crop is harvested. The rain has not affected the south as much as it has the north, he said. Yields still looked good in the north, but growers will have to scramble to harvest potatoes before they are rotted by the wet conditions. Tara Smith, sweet potato extension specialist at the Louisiana State University agriculture center, said there likely will be some crop losses, especially in low-lying areas, but it was too early to tell how significant those losses will be. She remained hopeful, however, especially since the crop harvested to date has seen good yields with above-average quality. "I'm cautiously optimistic that the majority of the crop will be harvested," she said. (By Tom Burfield, Western correspondent for The Packer. The Packer and Red Book Credit Services are part of food360º, a division of Vance Publishing Corp., Lincolnshire, Ill.)
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