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McIntyre fighting for expansion of NC sweet potato industry
Story Date: 5/10/2012
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Source: PRESS RELEASE, 5/10/12
U.S. Congressman Mike McIntyre is fighting to help the North Carolina sweet potato industry on the national and world stage.
McIntyre is leading an effort in the upcoming Farm Bill to include language that would make sure the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission can collect information about who is growing sweet potatoes and where they are growing them. Additionally, the NC Sweet Potato Commission must be able to gather grower information to collect the commodity assessment that pays for needed marketing and research.
North Carolina is the largest producer of sweet potatoes in the country with over 47 percent of the sweet potatoes in the United States being produced on a North Carolina farm. The sweet potato industry in North Carolina has expanded nearly 118% in the past decade alone, creating jobs in our state and providing additional opportunities for producers.
Part of the reason for the growth of the sweet potato industry in North Carolina is the increasing popularity of the product abroad, with a growth in sales in British and German markets in particular. This increase in popularity is due to the quality and versatility of the product. It is also in part due to the focused effort of the North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission to market sweet potatoes abroad and expand the reach of the product.
Currently, the collection of this information is made allowable by a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the NC Sweet Potato Commission and the United States Department of Agriculture Farm Services Agency (FSA). Specifically, the MOU allows FSA to provide the NC Sweet Potato Commission with the name and address of farmers growing sweet potatoes along with a detailed crop location and percent share of farms producing sweet potatoes of within the state of North Carolina.
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