P.E.I. premier says surplus potatoes will soon be destroyed if export ban not lifted
Potato producers in Prince Edward Island will have to start destroying a massive surplus in a matter of days if a resolution is not found soon to the dispute that has blocked exports to the United States, Premier Dennis King said Thursday.
King led a delegation to Capitol Hill this week, meeting with U.S. senators in hopes of ending a ban that has halted potato shipments from P.E.I. south of the border after the discovery of a fungus in Island potato fields.
But as the visit drew to a close, King worried that a large portion of this year's bumper potato crop -- enough, he said, to fill 36 floors of a building the size of an NHL arena -- will have to be destroyed.
Over lunch Thursday at a downtown D.C. hotel, the delegation spoke openly about their collective bewilderment at how dramatically the situation has escalated without what any of them see as a good reason. And in a country where inflation is on the march, they warned the impact will be unmistakable.
"The fact that P.E.I. won't be in the market will mean there'll be a lack of supply, or whatever supply is there will cost more. So this isn't just one jurisdiction not being able to sell potatoes; it's going to impact a lot of individuals," King said.
Even more baffling is that while about 25 per cent of what the province produces goes to the U.S., a large portion of that is typically bound for Puerto Rico, where potatoes are not farmed.
"No one can understand why that would pose a risk," King said. "That makes us question whether or not science is actually driving this."
It's not lost on the delegation that Canada is currently fighting with the U.S. on a number of trade fronts, including a Biden administration proposal on electric vehicles that poses a major risk to the Canadian auto industry. In fact, King said senior Canadian officials urged members of the delegation to raise the EV issue in their meetings.
"OK, yeah, so we're Team Canada players, absolutely," he said. "But is somebody raising potatoes when they're in the EV meetings? I don't know that. We certainly don't feel like they are, because nobody down here knows what the potato issue is until we meet with them."
Senators appeared surprised to learn P.E.I. potatoes are still being shipped across Canada, he added.
"They were of the belief that they're poison, or not edible," he said. "All of that seems to be just this lack of communication or poor communication on behalf of us, and it's just so frustrating."
In an interview Thursday with The Canadian Press, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau acknowledged the challenge the province is facing but blamed it on another "articulation of U.S. protectionism."
"I very much understand how dismayed he is," Trudeau said, noting that he discussed the issue at length with President Joe Biden when the two met in D.C. last month.
"The ban on table potatoes is not based on science, it is based on the kind of protectionism that unfortunately we are seeing in a lot of different ways in the United States. The moves we are doing and the efforts we are making continually to stand up for Islanders and farmers across this country will continue."
P.E.I. farmer Mark Craig says he has about 100 trailer truckloads of potatoes stored away and he's worried about their fate. "It's just a shame to have to even think about destroying this crop," he said in an interview Wednesday.
He and other farmers on the Island are looking at that possibility as they near the fourth week since Canada banned all exports of fresh potatoes from the Island to the U.S. after fungal potato wart was found in two potato fields. Canadian officials have said the U.S. would have imposed a ban -- that would have been harder to reverse -- had Canada not done so first.
Boyd Rose of East Point Potatoes said that in talks with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, he was told the agency has begun a national potato wart survey to ensure the fungus hasn't spread. Rose also said the agency is looking to collect and analyze some 30,000 soil samples from the fields where the fungus was most recently detected, a process that he was told could take until 2023.
"Normally, we would be planning this time of year as to what seed we're going to buy, what varieties, how many acres, making our purchases for fertilizers and everything is just 100 per cent up in the air," Rose said in an interview Thursday.
Craig said he hopes the federal government will buy his potatoes and deliver them to people in need across the country. Otherwise, he said, he would like Ottawa to compensate farmers if they have to destroy their crops.
Randy Visser, owner of G. Visser and Sons, said in an interview that some producers have taken to sending potatoes to food banks across the province. "Every home we can find that can utilize these potatoes before they're destroyed is absolutely the priority," Visser said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 16, 2021.
With files from Danielle Edwards in Halifax
This story was produced with the financial assistance of the Facebook and Canadian Press News Fellowship.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Police arrest 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole Porsche and ran over its owner
Police have arrested an 18-year-old woman who allegedly stole a Porsche and then ran over its owner in an incident that was captured on video.
Woman nearly shut out of mother's estate sues brother in B.C. Supreme Court – and wins
Since she was a young girl growing up in Vancouver, Ginny Lam says her mom Yat Hei Law made it very clear she favoured her son William, because he was her male heir.
Woman shot by B.C. police was Colombian refugee with young daughter, advocate says
Advocates have identified the woman who died this week after being shot by police in Surrey, B.C., as a South American refugee who was raising a young daughter.
3 injured after man with knife enters Montreal-area mosque
Three men were injured after trying to subdue a man armed with a knife during afternoon prayers at a Montreal-area mosque Friday afternoon.
Kamala Harris tells Oprah any intruder to her home is 'getting shot'
U.S. Vice-President Kamala Harris on Thursday issued a warning to any potential home intruder: 'If somebody breaks in my house, they're getting shot.'
Teen arrested in New Brunswick after emergency alert; 5 people in custody
A 15-year-old boy who was the subject of an emergency alert in New Brunswick has been arrested.
On the trail of the mystery woman whose company licensed exploding pagers
What Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono, 49, the Italian-Hungarian CEO and owner of Hungary-based BAC Consulting, says she hasn't done is make the exploding pagers that killed 12 people and wounded more than 2,000 in Lebanon this week.
'We're still pushing hard': Search for missing Manitoba boy continues, RCMP find tracks
The search for a missing six-year-old boy in Shamattawa is continuing Friday as RCMP hope recent tips can help lead to a happy conclusion.
Video released of person of interest after cat is allegedly set on fire in Orillia, Ont.
Provincial police investigating the death of a cat that was allegedly set on fire in Orillia earlier this week released surveillance video of a person of interest in the case.