With 972 million pounds of production in 2010, North Carolina is the dominant producer of sweet potatoes in the United States. The sweet potato was named our State Vegetable in 1995, and NC farmers have continued to advance its production through the years, accounting for roughly 40% of sweet potato production in the US. One recent advance by the Sweet Potato in North Carolina was the introduction of the Covington Sweet Potato.

For years, the dominant sweet potato variety in North Carolina, and most of the country was the Beauregard Sweet Potato. Beauregards produce good yields, are considered quite sweet, and are relatively disease and pest resistant. Recently, however, a new variety of Sweet Potato has been gaining favor with North Carolina farmers, the Covington Sweet Potato. The Covington variety was developed by NC State University in the late 90's to early 2000's, and was released by the North Carolina Agricultural Research Service in 2005. The variety was named after a popular and esteemed sweet potato scientist at the university, Henry M. Covington. Since its release in 2005, local growers have been devoting more and more land to its cultivation. The primary benefit of Covington Sweet Potatoes over other varieties is that they tend to grow more uniform in shape, which makes them much more marketable to retailers and food service establishments. Covingtons are also less likely to grow into the "jumbo" grade, which are too large for many cooking applications, making them difficult for farmers to sell. Many growers also feel that Covingtons grow and produce better than other sweet potato varieties. Many feel that they end up with less pest damage, and that their ultimate yields after grading are better with the Covington variety. While the data is too limited to tell for sure, overall sweet potato yields as measured and recorded by the USDA have increased noticeably in major Covington producing states like North Carolina and California, since the release of the variety in 2005.

North Carolina Sweet Potato Production:

Year.........Production....Yield....................Percent of...
................(lbs.).............(lbs/1,000 ac)......Total US......

1999........377 mil..........13,000.................30.8 %.......
2000........555...............15,000.................40.3...........
2001........558...............15,500.................38.4...........
2002........481...............13,000.................37.6...........
2003........588...............14,000.................37.0...........
2004........688...............16,000.................42.7...........
2005........595...............17,000.................37.8...........
2006........702...............18,000.................42.8...........
2007........667...............15,500.................36.8...........
2008........874...............19,000.................47.4...........
2009........920...............20,000.................47.3...........
2010........972...............18,000.................40.8...........

Source: USDA, National Agricultural Statistics Service

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