Canada to resume exports of PEI potatoes to United States

Mar 24, 2022

Prince Edward Island farmers will soon be able to resume exporting potatoes to the United States, months after Canada suspended shipments because of the detection of potato wart in fields on the Island.

The United States Department of Agriculture issued a news release today stating the two countries have reached an understanding.

The USDA says exports of P.E.I. table-stock potatoes can resume under certain conditions, including that potatoes shipped to the U.S. come only from fields not known to be infested with potato wart.

Canada halted the export of potatoes from P.E.I. last November to avoid a U.S. ban, and the continental United States market has been closed to all Island potatoes ever since. Exports to Puerto Rico resumed last month.

The P.E.I. Potato Board has said the Island's potato industry lost more than $25 million before exports to Puerto Rico resumed.

Potato wart is a fungal parasite that spreads through the movement of infected potatoes, soil and equipment, and though it poses no threat to human health, it leaves potatoes disfigured and can decrease crop yields.

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Video: Learning to Wrench From Dad the Hard Way

Harvest is a week out and the farm picked this week to fall apart. The truck needs a battery, the barn curtain's got a problem, and the corn and beans are telling us we're out of time to get it all fixed.

So it's a full day of wrenching. Tork supervises while I get the truck back running, then we're out at the hog barn where one rusted up part has the whole curtain system hung up. Ladder work, cable work, and a little dad-and-son disagreement about the right way to do it. We close it out walking the fields, shelling beans and checking corn, because whether everything's fixed or not, harvest starts when harvest starts.

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