P.E.I. potato farmers prepping spuds for Puerto Rico after export suspension

CHARLOTTETOWN -

Potato farmers on Prince Edward Island are preparing to ship potatoes to Puerto Rico after the United States announced earlier this week it would allow exports to resume to the territory.

Exports of potatoes from the Island to the United States have been on hold since November following the discovery of potato wart in two P.E.I. fields. The Island's farmers still can't ship their product to the continental United States.

The fungal parasite spreads through the movement of infected potatoes, soil and farm equipment, and though it poses no threat to human health, it leaves potatoes disfigured and can greatly decrease crop yields.

P.E.I. Potato Board general manager Greg Donald says the resumption of exports is good news, but he says the Island's potato industry lost more than $25 million over the last 12 weeks due to the export ban.

"Unfortunately, we can't roll back time," Donald said in an interview Wednesday. "We lost that critical U.S. Thanksgiving and Christmas and a large volume that we will not get back from the last 12 weeks or so."

Donald said farmers are working to fill a shipment that leaves Halifax on Feb. 14, but he said they must first add labels indicating the potatoes are not to be planted and are for sale in Puerto Rico only.

He said despite the resumption of sales to Puerto Rico, Island farmers will need to start destroying some of their potatoes next week.

"There is a large volume that unfortunately will have to be destroyed," he said.

The federal and provincial governments recently announced funding to help compensate farmers for the destruction of potatoes, but Donald said that only covers the cost of the destruction and not the lost sales. The funding covers 300 million pounds of potatoes, but he said applications have exceeded that.

Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said Tuesday that she was assured by her U.S. counterpart that a decision on P.E.I. potato exports to the continental United States would be made in a matter of weeks.

Donald said he believes the decision will be favourable, adding that it needs to be made as soon as possible.

However, when contacted Wednesday, a spokesperson for the USDA's Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service wasn't willing to speculate on a timeline.

"USDA bases its agricultural trade decisions on sound science and is conducting a pathway analysis to evaluate the risk of potato wart being introduced into the United States should broader imports be allowed," Suzanne Bond, assistant director public affairs, wrote in an email.

"Together with the results of Canada's ongoing investigation of the latest potato wart detections, the pathway analysis will be used to inform necessary changes to U.S. import requirements and to identify the most appropriate risk management strategies to prevent the introduction of potato wart," she wrote.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Feb. 9, 2022.

-- By Kevin Bissett in Fredericton.