Refinements to Sweetpotato Market Segmentation

The identification and systematic application of criteria for identifying seed product market segments (SPMSs) across all crops included in the CGIAR crop breeding portfolio (see Market Intelligence Brief #1) is a game changer for supporting new discussions on the prioritization of the breeding pipelines, assessing their impact opportunities, and, ultimately, enhancing the market responsiveness and return on investment of the breeding effort.

A consultative process by the CGIAR Initiative on Market Intelligence, the International Potato Center (CIP), and national agricultural research and extension systems (NARES) identified an opportunity to refine the initial SPMS for sweetpotato. The initial market segmentation effort focused on identifying market segments aligned with existing breeding pipelines—in other words, segments that CIP and partners are already breeding for. Given resource and time pressures, this was an important step ahead to support new conversations on product design and investment opportunities across pipelines. However, such a focus left questions about the current and future opportunities for sweetpotato breeding and seed systems investments for other segments that fall outside the scope of current investments.

Between January and November 2023, a multidisciplinary CIP team identified several segments not aligned with CIP breeding pipelines. These included both segments in CGIAR subregion regions that were already included in the initial segmentation as well as segments in subregions that exist but were not included in the SPMS Database.

The former led to the following additions:

• Five new segments in Latin America that recognize variations in flesh color (white and purple in addition to the original orange) and production environment (humid tropical Amazon in addition to the original drought-prone environment)
• Two new segments in Southern Asia that recognize flesh color: white and purple
• Three new segments in South-eastern Asia that recognize flesh colors: white, yellow, and orange

The latter entailed adding segments for a major producing subregion, Central Africa, which despite having more than 400,000 ha under sweetpotato, is not currently targeted by CIP breeding.

Furthermore, following the adoption of the UN M49 standard for country classification, two additional changes were recommended. First, the Eastern African subregion was split into two production environments: high virus (SPVD) pressure environment and drought- and heat-prone environment (the latter to capture several important producing countries previously classified in Southern Africa, such as Mozambique and Madagascar). Second, to replace the Central and Western Asia and Northern Africa (CWANA) region and focus only on Northern Africa, since CWANA is not considered a subregion in UN M49 while sweetpotato production in both Central and Western Asia is negligible (total less than 2,500 ha).

Overall, this exercise expanded the number of market segments for sweetpotato, from 14 to 30. The revised market segmentation is presented in Table 1 and will be soon made available in the Global Market Intelligence Platform (GloMIP). The next steps will involve description of identified market segments by gathering information on the area under crop and the value and volume per market segment. Discussions will follow to coordinate efforts on the design of the new target product profiles (TPPs) that describe the ideal product for the new market segments identified.

Table 1. Revised sweetpotato market segments based on the eight market segmentation criteria, global