Online Reporter
Word from the Market
Tina Nleya
LAST WEEK, we looked at what a possible El Niño season could mean for the agricultural marketplace.
The central message was that climate risk should change the way we plan, not simply the way we worry.
This week, that conversation turns to one crop that deserves closer attention: sweet potato. Sweet potato is not new to Zimbabwean agriculture. For generations, it has been grown as a household food crop, sold in informal markets and eaten boiled or roasted. What is changing is the economics around it.
Climate resilience, changing consumer preferences and the growth of value addition are giving the crop a wider commercial role. That shift is visible in production statistics.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Mechanisation and Water Resources Development Second Round Crops, Livestock and Fisheries Assessment for 2024/2025 estimated sweet potato production at 215 604 tonnes from 28 137 hectares (ha), compared with 34 476 tonnes from 8 513ha in 2023/2024. The 2025/2026 First Round Assessment subsequently recorded 31 457ha under the crop. These figures do not by themselves prove demand, but they show that sweet potato is moving beyond the margins of production.
Why does this matter as the country prepares for a climate-risk season?
Sweet potato is recognised as relatively drought-tolerant and can perform under moisture stress, although it still requires adequate moisture, particularly during establishment and root initiation. Resilience does not mean growing without water. It means farmers have another tool for spreading production risk. This is precisely the thinking climate-proofed agriculture requires.
A resilient farming system does not depend on a single crop performing perfectly every season. It spreads risk across crops, production windows and markets.
The Government’s wider push towards climate-smart production, therefore, creates an important opening for sweet potatoes. Previous programmes have promoted clean planting material, farmer training and diversification, while research institutions like Kutsaga have worked on improved varieties.
The current emphasis on early preparation for the 2026/2027 season and drought-tolerant crops makes diversification even more commercially relevant.
But the sweet potato story is no longer only about what happens in the field. The market is also changing.
Several market signals have pointed towards growth: expanding production, interest in orange-fleshed varieties, new processing applications and renewed export interest. Consumers are increasingly looking for different sources of carbohydrates and more diverse diets. Sweet potato fits naturally into that conversation.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations food composition data confirms that sweet potato provides carbohydrate and dietary fibre, while orange- and yellow-fleshed varieties can provide important provitamin A.
This places the crop at the intersection of food security, nutrition and convenience. The bigger opportunity may be what happens after harvest. Sweet potato can be converted into flour, chips, crisps and other value-added products, extending its market beyond the fresh produce stall. The University of Zimbabwe has demonstrated this potential through its innovation hub-linked VN Agro initiative, which has produced bread and confectionery incorporating sweet potato.
The Government has also highlighted rural enterprises turning sweet potatoes into chips as part of the wider rural industrialisation agenda. This matters because processing changes the economics of a perishable crop. Fresh sweet potatoes have a limited marketing window. When many farmers harvest at the same time, markets can quickly become oversupplied and prices weaken.
Processing creates additional outlets and can extend the period over which value is captured.
Flour can feed into baking; crisps are a snack product; puree can support bakery applications; and grading and packaging can create differentiated fresh-market products. For traders and processors, this creates another opportunity: aggregation.
A processor cannot build a reliable product line around irregular quantities arriving from scattered farmers. Consistent processing requires predictable volumes, suitable varieties, uniform quality and planned supply. This opens space for organised grower clusters, village business units, irrigation schemes, aggregators and contract arrangements that connect production directly to a defined market.
Farmers should, therefore, resist being told sweet potato is growing and simply planting hectares without first understanding the buyer.
The variety required for a fresh market may not be the one preferred by a processor or export customer.
Root size, flesh colour, dry-matter content, appearance, chemical-use history and consistency can all influence market acceptance.
As we have repeatedly argued in this column, production becomes more profitable when the market is identified before planting. Export interest in Zimbabwean sweet potatoes has also been growing. Recent reports indicate interest from United Kingdom buyers in Zimbabwean sweet potatoes, particularly orange-fleshed types. Export markets can offer attractive opportunities, but they also bring phytosanitary, traceability, quality and residue requirements.
Farmers interested in those markets must work backwards from the specification rather than forward from the harvest. So, what is the word from the market ahead of the coming season? Sweet potato should not be presented as a replacement for maize, nor as a miracle crop that eliminates climate risk. Its value lies in diversification.
It gives farmers another crop to spread climatic and income risk, consumers another nutritious food option, processors another locally produced raw material and traders another value chain around which markets can be organised. The opportunity is to move sweet potato from being treated largely as a fallback food to being managed as a commercial value chain.
Tina Nleya is the Agricultural Marketing Authority (AMA)’s marketing and public relations manager. She can be contacted on email: [email protected]. Word From The Market is a column produced by AMA to promote market-driven production.
