Exporting sweet potatoes to the European Union

Europe is not a sweet potato continent.  Historically, Europeans never cultivated sweet potatoes and they didn’t eat much of the vegetable. Sweet potato was a “new world crop”. Popular in the America’s, Asia and Africa, sweet potato was not much appreciated in Europe, until recently. A lot of this has to do with the newly realized health benefits of the tubers which have now attracted renewed interest in sweet potatoes from consumers and retailers in the UK. Other major EU markets for sweet potatoes include the Netherlands, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany and others. The UK accounts for over 50% of the market.

Packaged Sweet Potatoes for Export to Europe

Almost from nothing, the European Union now imports an estimated $20 million worth of sweet potatoes every year and the demand will increase steadily in the coming years.  Growers in the US and South Africa and Egypt for example have already broken into the EU market in spite of stringent conditions.

Packaged Sweet Potato for Export

The biggest market for sweet potatoes in the EU is the UK where American producers are now the key suppliers. Some of the factors that have led to increased consumption of sweet potatoes in the UK include increased affluence, desire for a more nutritious diet following the publicizing by scientific, health and nutrition journals of the numerous health benefits of sweet potatoes and also a willingness to try new products by UK’s more sophisticated shoppers and consumers.

Packaged Sweet Potatoes

 Consumption of sweet potatoes is said to be higher during the winter months and also winter holidays, especially by the various immigrant communities calling the UK home for whom the sweet potato is a staple food.

Some of the requirements on sweet potato imports imposed by the UK retailers include the following:

• Damage from all sources including bruising, skinning, insect damage and disease must not exceed a 2% gross defect tolerance level.
• The export quality tubers must be carefully selected to include only firm well shaped sweet potatoes with bright clean skins.
• Strict control over sweet potato sizes must be enforced to ensure strict uniformity of the tubers inside the carton during packaging. The sweet potatoes should be approximately similar in sizes and shapes.

To access British supermarkets, you must work with the UK importers.  All the supermarkets in the UK obtain their sweet potatoes from the importers rather than from farmers or exporters in the third country.  As a supplier to the UK or EU markets, you must be certified to sell to any of the principal retailers in the UK or in Europe. Normally, growers and exporters get a EUREPGAP approval through an independent verification body approved by EUREP(Euro-Retailer Working Group).

EUREPGAP is a common standard for retailers/supermarkets in Europe and is the abbreviation for Euro-Retailer Produce Working Group-Good Agricultural Practice.  The aim of creating the initiative was to bring conformity to different retailers' supplier standards, which had been creating problems for farmers. It is now the world's most widely implemented farm certification scheme. Most European customers for agricultural products now demand evidence of EurepGAP certification as a prerequisite for doing business.

In the next blog post, we will cover information on how to get the EUREPGAP Certification for exporting sweet potatoes to Europe. South Africa and Egypt are already carving up a sweet potato market share in the UK. Time for Kabondo to get our act together.

A sweet potato farming manual on the same is coming soon.