Published in Scientific Papers. Series "Management, Economic Engineering in Agriculture and rural development", Vol. 25 ISSUE 3
Written by Adrian CHIRA, Lenuta CHIRA, Elena Maria DRAGHICI, Elena DOBRIN, Iulian Andrei SZEIKELY

Sweet potato consumption worldwide, but particularly in some African and South-East Asian countries, is second only to the potato as an important source of food for the population. Additionally, given the soil and climate requirements and the ongoing impacts of climate change, including global warming, sweet potato is a crop expected to increase in cultivation. This paper discusses the findings from studies on post-harvest management and the economic assessment of sweet potato cultivars in the marketing process. The duration of the quality keeping depends of the environmental conditions during storage, mainly temperature and relative humidity levels. The shelf-life was extended when stored at 13°C and 90% relative humidity (climatic room), lasting between 180 and 192 days, depending on the variety. In contrast, under ambient conditions of 18°C and 60% relative humidity, the shelf-life was shorter, ranging from 115 to 130 days, also depending on the variety. Overall losses at the end of storage were lower in the climatic chamber, ranging from 16% for Koretta to 23% for RO-CH-M. It was also ascertained that over 98% of the output of the sweet potato cultivars correspond to the specific quality standard and the tubers production have a homogenous structure by quality categories, the value of quality category coefficient (Q) having values between 2.56 and 2.65.

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