CALIFORNIA
Vegetables A SPECIAL GROWERS’ REPORT OF AG ALERT ®
TM
A crew harvests a field of the Bellevue orange-fleshed sweet potato variety near Delhi in Merced County. At right, harvested bins of sweet potatoes await transport to storage sheds, where they’ll be held under controlled conditions until they’re packed to meet orders. Growers statewide report overall good quality and average yields for the 2026 crop.
Market, prices strengthen for sweet potato growers By Vicky Boyd After suffering from a post-COVID hangover, the state’s sweet potato industry appears to be recovering with stabilized acreage and improved prices over the past year. 80 1,000-pound bins per acre, which could have been larger overall had some growers waited to harvest.
A mid-October storm that dropped up to an inch of rain in many areas likely wasn’t enough to damage unharvested sweet potatoes, thanks to ensuing warm weather that dried out the ground, Fookes said. Statewide, growers planted about 18,000 acres this season, down from about 21,000 acres six years ago, Stoddard said. Most of the state’s production is centered in Stanislaus, Merced and Fresno counties. At one time, about one-third to one-half of the state’s sweet potato crop was sold in November, driven by the Thanksgiving holiday. While the month still accounts for a large portion of sales, Fookes said sweet potato consumption has grown to be more year-round. He pointed to the root vegetable’s positive nutritional story, versatility and greater use by food service as a few reasons for the shift. Orange-fleshed varieties remain the biggest market drivers, although red-skinned ones also are popular. Fookes said he’s seen growing interest in specialty varieties, particularly Murisaki, a Louisiana State University release with purplish skin and creamy white flesh. Increased production and heightened consumer awareness has spurred Murisaki’s
“Beginning last year, things finally started getting better, mostly because there were short crops in Mississippi and North Carolina because of weather,” said Scott Stoddard, a farm adviser with the University of California Cooperative Extension. Jeremy Fookes, director of sales for Livingston-based A.V. Thomas Produce, a sweet potato grower, packer and shipper, agreed. “Compared to last season, this season definitely has some strength to it for growers, especially with the supply situation,” he said. “It’s one of those seasons where there’s an opportunity to be a little bit firmer with pricing, but it needed to be so with not having a bumper crop and having higher input costs.” Harvest of this year’s crop, which started unusually early in late July, will continue into November but will taper off, Stoddard said. Spurred by strong early sweet potato prices and a tight market, some growers began to dig the crop in mid-summer before the roots had achieved their overall size potential. “They wanted to take advantage of good prices,” said Stoddard, who serves Merced and Madera counties. “They churned through acreage because they were only harvesting half a crop.” This season, Stoddard said he sees good quality and expects average yields of about
See POTATOES, Page 7
6 Ag Alert November 4, 2026
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