I’ve been watching produce categories cycle through booms and busts for four decades and I can’t think of many that have taken three straight hits the way sweet potatoes have.

Thanksgiving is just 13 weeks from now. For those grocers running a produce department, that date's already been circled in red, because sweet potato casserole shows up on most American tables in late November. This Thanksgiving may be a bit disappointing as there is a shortage of sweet potatoes. The problems is the shortage has been three years in the making.

North Carolina Grows More Than Half The Country’s Sweet Potatoes — And It’s Had Three Rough Years In A Row

North Carolina has grown the majority of the country's sweet potatoes since 1971, and that concentration means a bad North Carolina season becomes a national shortage. Hurricane Helene occurred in 2024 plus a string of other storms that cut volume 25 to 30 percent according to growers, with the North Carolina Sweetpotato Commission putting statewide yields down 20 to 30 percent. 2025 was supposed to be the bounce-back, and instead fields in Mississippi and elsewhere went 70-plus days without rain during the exact growing period when the sweet potato roots needed to grow strong. Then this spring planting season drought crept back into North........

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