Export ban continues to harm P.E.I. seed potato farmers

Uncertainty remains high for Prince Edward Island seed potato farmers, as a ban on exports stretches into its second season.

The growing season has been good so far, but farmers say it hardly matters. With a seed potato export ban in effect, regardless of how much farmers harvest, they can’t sell their product.

Alex Docherty, a farmer and owner of Skye View Farms Seed Potato, says an Ontario customer of more than 30 years “couldn’t believe,” he couldn’t buy Docherty’s seed.

“He knows we don’t have wart, never did have wart. And if you look back at the history, wart’s never been shipped off P.E.I. in seed potatoes,” said Docherty.

Many of the Island’s seed potato farmers rely heavily on exports.

While an outbreak of potato wart has been confined to a few fields on P.E.I., the ban stops any seed potatoes from leaving the province. The disease is harmless to humans, but affects yields and leaves potatoes malformed.

“This year’s a real unknown yet, like we have no idea,” said Docherty. “Couple of varieties we didn’t grow completely, that were only for Ontario.”

In a typical year, about 10 per cent of the potatoes grown on the Island are for seed.

There is no sign of the ban lifting soon. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency has to process 17,000 samples taken from potato fields and that isn’t expected to be finished until at least spring 2023.

According to Stats Canada, potato farmers planted more than 385,000 acres of potatoes across the country in 2022.

Prince Edward Island continued to report the largest seeded area for potatoes, at 80,500 acres, followed closely by Manitoba and Alberta.

Despite maintaining the largest area of potatoes, Prince Edward Island reported the most significant drop in acreage in 2022. This decrease of 5,500 acres is primarily due to the uncertainty of export markets for the upcoming crop.