Sweet potatoes – Double payoff on an investment

Sweet potatoes are similar to regular ones, only bigger. They grow quickly and are harvested only 90 days after the sowing. The yield per plant is around a kilogram and a half. It is a tropical plant that can be cultivated in Serbia successfully, but is rarely sown.

Several years ago, Srdjan Aleksic founded a cooperative in Dobric near Sabac. He now grows sweet potatoes on two hectares.

– First you remove the shoots, then the foil, and the extraction has to be done slowly, as it is very brittle and sensitive. It is then washed, but only the first class is washed – Aleksic says.

It is disease-resistant and tolerant of high temperatures. The yield per hectare is around 25 tons, and the majority of it is bought out by store chains in the country.

– We mostly grow the orange variety here, as it is in demand. Everyone knows about the orange one, very few people know about the pink or the purple one. To each dinar invested, you earn two – Aleksic pointed out.

Sweet potatoes are much more expensive than regular ones. Depending on the season, a kilogram has a retail price of up to RSD 450.

The biggest cost in establishing a plantation are the seedlings, which arrived to Pocerina from Croatia. Young agriculturists make flour from second-class sweet potatoes, for which there are no purchasers.