Federal Agriculture Minister and P.E.I. MP Lawrence MacAulay on Friday reported meeting with staff and representatives of the P.E.I. Potato Board, to discuss next steps in the face of new potato wart-related restrictions on the province’s crops since 2021.

Potato wart was first detected in the province in 2000, and after a six-month ban on P.E.I. potato exports to the U.S., a system was put in place allowing exports from lower-risk zones where the fungus hasn’t been detected and where the same equipment wasn’t used.

While not considered a human health or food safety risk, potato wart is known to reduce crop yields and can make potatoes unmarketable by ruining their appearance.

The zone system allowing U.S. exports continued up until October 2021, when potato wart was confirmed in two P.E.I. fields which were related to previous detections and were already under regulation. In November that year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) advised U.S. border services to reject all shipments of P.E.I. potatoes.

P.E.I. potatoes for consumption were admitted again to the U.S. the following April — but exports of field-grown P.E.I. seed potatoes to the U.S. remain prohibited.

A federal ministerial order in place since last Nov. 21 allows for P.E.I. seed potatoes to move to other provinces on a case-by-case basis, and provides for tighter risk controls on P.E.I. table stock and processing potatoes.

‘Next steps’

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) last month completed its investigation into the two 2021 detections. The agency said it collected and analyzed 48,789 soil samples from P.E.I. fields associated with the two findings. Those samples confirmed potato wart in four more fields, bringing the province’s total to 37 affected fields since 2000.

Thus, CFIA said last month, the risks associated with the transmission of potato wart from fresh potatoes from P.E.I. “remain negligible when appropriate risk mitigation measures are in place and followed.”

With the probe complete, MacAulay and CFIA said Friday they’re “committed to engaging with the industry on next steps.”

Those steps, they said, will include criteria for designating PFPP in the province, to “support the movement of commodities including seed potatoes off of the island.”

Plans for a PFPP system were “discussed and welcomed” by the P.E.I. Potato Board during the meeting, the government said.

Over 95 per cent of P.E.I. potatoes continue to remain eligible for export to the rest of Canada and to the U.S., MacAulay said in a federal release, emphasizing “the importance of working together with growers as they maintain and enhance control measures, such as biosecurity and traceability activities” so as to maintain market access.

CFIA said it will “continue to engage” with the P.E.I. industry on program elements to renew Canada’s National Potato Wart Response Plan and work toward implementation of that updated plan in 2024.

A new long-term plan to help continue to contain, control, and prevent the spread of potato wart “will help maintain and improve the economic sustainability of the potato sector in P.E.I. and across Canada, and maintain crucial export markets,” the agency said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Gordon MacFadyen, most recently executive director of fiscal management and assistant secretary to Treasury Board with the provincial finance department, was announced Aug. 8 as deputy minister of agriculture, replacing Brian Matheson.

Matheson, who was shuffled Aug. 8 to deputy minister for transportation and infrastructure, had just been named deputy minister for agriculture in April, after holding the title on an acting basis since June 2019.

During his stint as executive director for fiscal management, MacFadyen was responsible for the provincial budget and quarterly forecasting. He also served five years as provincial comptroller and previously held senior financial roles with the education and health ministries. Before joining the province, MacFadyen was director of finance for the City of Summerside.

The deputy ministers’ shuffle is meant “to deliver on priorities as outlined in the ministerial mandate letters that are also being released today,” the province said Aug. 8.

For Bloyce Thompson, who was named as agriculture minister after last April’s provincial election, the Aug. 8 mandate letter from King includes priorities such as:

• continued advocacy for seed potato producers to to restore both domestic and export markets for seed potatoes;
• exploring controlled-environment farming and indoor farming, via greenhouses, tunnels, hydroponics and enhanced storage and refrigeration;
• continuing work on financial and support programs to increase beef cattle production in the province;
• starting the process of creating a provincial food waste reduction strategy;
• working with the housing, land and community ministry toward a land-use plan to maintain agricultural land for food production;
• modernizing the provincial Agricultural Insurance Corporation;
• a long-term plan for safe management of deadstock; and
• working with relevant ministries to help farmers address “workforce challenges in agriculture, specifically focused on housing.”

The changes to provincial departments’ senior management “provide an opportunity for a fresh perspective, renewed energy” and “an opportunity for growth and development for our senior leadership team as a whole,” King said in a release Aug. 8. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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It is the P.E.I. MP’s second time in the role, having previously held it between 2015 and 2019.

MacAulay took over the role from Marie-Claude Bibeau, who will move to the post of Minister of National Revenue.

Manitoba’s Keystone Agricultural Producers (KAP) was quick to commend the appointment, releasing a press release shortly after the news broke Tuesday.

“On behalf of all Manitoba farmers, I want to welcome Minister MacAulay back to his role as Minister of Agriculture & Agri-Food,” said KAP President Jill Verwey via the statement.

She also thanked Bibeau for her work in the role and said that MacAulay’s previous experience would be an asset in the future.

There is support for the move within MacAulay’s home province as well; Donald Killorn, Executive Director of the Prince Edward Island Federation of Agriculture (PEIFA) said he welcomed the news.

“Farmers on Prince Edward Island are very pleased to see Minister MacAulay return to the Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada portfolio,” said Killorn. “We had a good relationship with Minister Bibeau, but Minister MacAulay is someone who we know well and many, many farmers have a personal relationship with.”

“He was a Prince Edward Island farmer himself before he became a minister of Parliament,” Killorn continued. “We were thrilled to see when Prime Minister Trudeau decided to place Minister MacAulay back in that role.”

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture (CFA) also welcomed MacAulay in their own statement, saying it looked forward to collaborating, “to propel the vital interests of Canadian agriculture forward, unleashing Canadian agriculture’s full potential as an economic driver and source of climate solutions.”

In a follow-up interview, CFA President Keith Currie said he was encouraged to see someone with experience dealing in agriculture taking over the role.

“It’s nice to have somebody that’s familiar with the industry and familiar with the players,” Currie said. “There won’t hopefully be a long period of getting up to speed.”

Currie also mentioned that MacAulay’s personal experience with farming could be an asset.

“Coming from an island like Prince Edward Island where predominantly agriculture is everything, he certainly is kept up to speed with, you know, a lot of the issues, so we’re looking forward to reacquainting ourselves with Mr. MacAulay and working together with him moving forward.”

“I was vice president of CFA when he was appointed as minister,” Currie said. “And so, we did work closely with him.”

He also acknowledged Bibeau’s work in the role, thanking her for four years as ag minister. “I know she worked very hard,” he said.

Lauren Kennedy, Director of Public Affairs for the Chicken Farmers of Canada (CFC) said MacAulay has always been a relevant figure in Canadian agriculture, no matter what role he currently held.

“We’ve worked closely with Lawrence MacAulay back when he was minister previously. Even since then, to be honest, he’s always been a friend of agriculture,” she said.

“Even when he was outside of the portfolio, we kept in touch with him and kept him apprised of our issues.”

The Canadian Organic Growers (COG) welcomed MacAulay back to the role and said they looked forward to working with him.

“COG looks forward to engaging and collaborating with Minister MacAulay on the interests and needs of Canadian organic and regenerative producers, and the essential role they play in advancing Canada’s climate goals,” read a July 27 press release.

In the dairy industry, the news was met kindly as well.

“Minister MacAulay is well versed on the realities of dairy production, and we look forward to collaborating with him further,” said David Wiens, President of Dairy Farmers of Canada in an email.

National Farmers Union (NFU) President Jen Pfenning said the NFU sent MacAulay a letter of congratulation after hearing the news.

“He has experience in the role, so I suspect he’ll be up to speed quite quickly, and that’s a good thing,” said Pfenning. “I personally am looking forward to meeting with him as soon as he can make some time in his schedule.”

The NFU wasted no time calling the newly appointed minister to action; they issued a joint letter with the Wheat Growers Association (WGA) asking him to halt the Canadian Grain Commission (CGC) decision to impose export grade standards on wheat delivered to country elevators within the hour of his appointment.

Pfenning said this was not at all related to his change in position, but a statement the NFU was already planning on issuing.

— Jonah Grignon reports for Glacier FarmMedia from Ottawa.

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Bloyce Thompson, MLA for the district of Stanhope-Marshfield since 2019 and ag minister from 2019 until last summer, was again appointed April 14 as King’s minister of agriculture, justice and public safety and attorney general.

King’s shuffle also decouples what was until now the ministry of agriculture and land. The latter file now goes to a “realigned” department of housing, land and communities, to be led by Rob Lantz, the rookie Progressive Conservative MLA for Charlottetown-Brighton.

The new housing, land and communities department is expected to be “working closely with municipalities on developing a provincewide land-use plan” for Prince Edward Island, the government said in a release.

Thompson, a third-generation dairy farmer and former board member with Dairy Farmers of P.E.I., was first named ag minister as a rookie MLA following the April 2019 provincial election, in which he unseated incumbent premier Wade MacLauchlan.

King last July had shuffled Thompson over to the economic growth, tourism and culture portfolios, and replaced him on the agriculture and land, justice and public safety files with then-finance minister Darlene Compton.

Compton, who’d been the province’s first female ag minister, has been shuffled out of cabinet in King’s April 14 announcement. Thompson also becomes deputy premier, a role Compton had held since 2019.

“This team is a mix of experience and new perspectives, geographically represents our island, and has a record number of women serving as members of executive council,” King said in his release.

Both Thompson and Compton easily won their ridings in the April 3 provincial election. Thompson held his constituency of Stanhope-Marshfield with 2209 votes, a spread of 1,643 votes over his lone challenger, NDP candidate Marian White.

New deputy

Separately on April 14, King also announced changes to the senior civil service, including the formal appointment of Brian Matheson as deputy minister of agriculture, effective April 17.

Having already served as acting deputy minister of agriculture and land since 2019, Matheson has been with the provincial ag department for about three decades, most recently as director of policy and agriculture resources since 2015.

Matheson has taken part in national policy and regulatory discussions and negotiations at the federal/provincial/territorial table over the past five years as part of his policy and regulatory responsibilities, the province noted.

As the province’s seniormost ag bureaucrat, Matheson replaces Laurie Loane, who left the deputy minister post in 2019 to return to her previous job as executive director of the P.E.I. Agriculture Sector Council. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Darlene Compton, King’s agriculture minister since last summer and his incumbent deputy premier, won re-election Monday for the Progressive Conservatives in her district of Belfast-Murray River.

Compton, the province’s first female agriculture minister and first female deputy premier, won 1,510 of 2,574 votes — well ahead of Liberal challenger Katherine Bryson with 520.

The incumbent opposition Green Party’s leader and agriculture critic, Peter Bevan-Baker, also held his district of New Haven-Rocky Point, drawing 1,457 votes on Monday.

Bevan-Baker’s margin of victory was 106 votes against Tory challenger Donalda Docherty — a relatively narrow spread compared to the 2019 general election. Sharon Cameron, the provincial Liberals’ new leader, came in third in New Haven-Rocky Point with 502 votes.

Bevan-Baker’s Greens also lost official opposition status, keeping just two of their eight seats from 2019. Cameron’s Liberals won three seats — down from six in 2019, but enough to regain official opposition — while the Tories took 22 seats, lifting them out of minority government status.

The Liberals’ incumbent ag critic, former ag minister Robert Henderson, held his district of O’Leary-Inverness with 894 votes. That also gave Henderson a relatively narrower margin, 156 votes over Tory challenger Daniel MacDonald, a beef and dairy farmer. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Canada’s federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said on Twitter that officials with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) are now preparing to certify exports of eligible P.E.I. potatoes to the U.S. “as quickly as possible” to meet the new rules.

Export certificates can now be requested for shipments that meet the new order from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), CFIA said Friday in a separate notice.

Friday’s order from APHIS ends an export ban in place since Nov. 22. That’s when APHIS advised U.S. border officials to reject shipments of P.E.I. potatoes — thus leaving CFIA unable to certify outgoing shipments, which in turn led to a Canadian ministerial order to suspend export permits.

The suspension had followed confirmations of the fungus that causes potato wart in two P.E.I. fields last October. Another “directly associated” field was confirmed with the fungus last month.

Potato wart is not brand-new to P.E.I., although it remains relatively rare there. The province has confirmed 34 fields with the potato wart pathogen since its first case was discovered, in 2000.

Canadian and U.S. officials, after a months-long ban in 2000, agreed on a new system allowing exports from lower-risk zones of P.E.I. where the fungus hasn’t been detected — and the two countries operated under that system up until the cases in October.

APHIS said Friday its “subsequent confirmatory analysis” of P.E.I.’s potato wart situation in February led to the new order.

While the new order allows imports of P.E.I. potatoes for consumption, it still specifically prohibits imports of the province’s field-grown seed potatoes into the United States. The order allows entry of “in vitro plantlets, micro-tubers and mini-tubers for planting” but those will require a permit.

Under the new order, shipments of P.E.I. table potatoes eligible for export must be:

• from fields that don’t have potato wart or are “associated with known infestations;”
• grown from seed potatoes that were not produced on any wart-infected or wart-associated field;
• washed in P.E.I. to remove soil, and confirmed as free of soil on inspection at the port of entry;
• treated with a sprout inhibitor registered with Canada’s Pest Management Regulatory Agency (PMRA), and accompanied by a statement on the export documentation detailing that treatment;
• graded to meet the U.S. No. 1 standard (equivalent to Canada No. 1);
• officially “inspected for pest freedom” prior to export, after the potatoes are washed; and
• traceable from the field of production through to packing and export, allowing for full traceback and recall if need be.

Consignments arriving at a U.S. port of entry are also subject to inspection and must also come with a CFIA-issued, APHIS-approved certification that the potatoes are “free of quarantine pests for the United States” and declaring they meet all the requirements of the new order.

The new APHIS order replaces previous orders on P.E.I. potato imports for all U.S. states and territories — including for Puerto Rico, where APHIS had already allowed fresh P.E.I. potato exports to resume in February.

The P.E.I. Potato Board, in a separate statement Friday, said it’s “pleased to receive the confirmation” of APHIS’ new order, adding that farmers and potato packers will work with CFIA to “ensure the requirements are clearly understood.”

Potato growers and packers “look forward to moving ahead with shipping P.E.I.’s safe, healthy and world-class potatoes the remainder of the shipping season,” the board said.

That said, the board noted P.E.I. seed potato growers “are still subject to trade restrictions that need urgent attention, particularly with respect to adequate compensation.”

The federal government in December pledged up to $28 million to help P.E.I. growers manage the surplus of potatoes resulting from the U.S. export suspension. A resulting program, which also included $12.2 million in provincial funding, was formally launched in February with the goal of “diverting as many potatoes as possible to processors, packers and food banks.”

Where needed, the program also pledged to help P.E.I. growers cover the cost of “environmentally-sound destruction of surplus potatoes” at a rate of up to 8.5 cents per pound.

The U.S. in 2020 was by far P.E.I.’s biggest customer for potatoes, taking $476.9 million in fresh or chilled and processed potato goods, or just over 92 per cent of the province’s total potato exports, the province said last fall. Those product categories alone formed almost 84 per cent of the province’s total agricultural and agri-food exports last year.

While not considered a human health or food safety risk, potato wart is known to drag down crop yields and can make potatoes unmarketable by ruining their appearance.

The fungal disease appears mainly below-ground, on plants’ tubers and runners. It spreads through movement of affected potatoes, soil, farm equipment and manure from animals that digest infested potatoes.

Among Canadian provinces other than P.E.I., potato wart is present only in Newfoundland and Labrador. Potatoes, root vegetables, soil, used bags, burlap, plants with roots and soil and other containers with soil are not allowed to leave that province, except under CFIA permit. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The P.E.I. Potato Board on Tuesday said the field in question is near to, and is “directly associated” with, a field where the soil-borne disease was found in October.

The field in question was also earmarked to produce potatoes for processing, rather than for seed or table stock — and the potatoes from that field “have been already processed,” the board said.

The soil sampling that turned up the new case was being conducted as part of the investigation of the two cases last fall, the board said, noting the new finding is “no surprise to those who study and manage potato wart.”

Rather, the board said, “this detection shows that the Long-Term Potato Wart Management Plan is correctly identifying fields at risk and implementing the appropriate surveillance and testing measures.”

The new case would be the 35th P.E.I. field with a potato wart detection since October 2000, when the disease was first confirmed in the province.

After a months-long ban on P.E.I. potato exports to the U.S. in 2000, a system was put in place between Canada and the U.S. to allow exports from lower-risk zones where the fungus hasn’t been detected and where the same equipment wasn’t used, as per the federal/provincial long-term plan.

But a request from U.S. plant health officials led Canada in early November to suspend permits for exports of fresh potatoes from Prince Edward Island. The U.S. cited concerns over the two cases found in P.E.I. processing potato fields in October.

Exports of fresh potatoes have since been allowed to resume from P.E.I. to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico, but have not yet resumed to the mainland U.S.

Ottawa in December pledged up to $28 million to help P.E.I. potato producers manage the surplus of potatoes resulting from the U.S. export suspension.

A resulting program, which also includes $12.2 million in provincial funding, was formally launched last month with the goal of “diverting as many potatoes as possible to processors, packers and food banks.”

Where needed, the program will also help P.E.I. potato growers cover the cost of “environmentally-sound destruction of surplus potatoes” at a rate of up to 8.5 cents per pound.

The U.S. in 2020 was by far P.E.I.’s biggest customer for potatoes, taking $476.9 million in fresh or chilled and processed potato goods, or just over 92 per cent of the province’s total potato exports, the province said last fall. Those product categories alone formed almost 84 per cent of the province’s total agricultural and agri-food exports last year.

The potato board reiterated Tuesday that the long-term management plan “has for more than 20 years controlled the movement of potatoes and equipment from regulated fields, mandated comprehensive cleaning and disinfection activities for high-risk fields, and restricted the movement of potatoes from fields under regulation.”

Ongoing surveillance supports that fields outside of the regulated area are free from potato wart, the board said.

“As a result, potato wart has never spread from P.E.I. to anywhere else,” the board said, noting that was confirmed in the results of a national soil survey released in December.

While not considered a human health or food safety risk, potato wart is known to drag down crop yields and can make potatoes unmarketable by ruining their appearance.

The fungal disease appears mainly below-ground, on plants’ tubers and runners. It spreads through movement of affected potatoes, soil, farm equipment and manure from animals that digest infested potatoes. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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The resumption of exports to Puerto Rico, announced Tuesday, is a spot of good news for the province’s potato sector. Export certificates for P.E.I. potatoes to the U.S. and its territories have been suspended since November following confirmed cases of potato wart in two fields in that province.

Canada had agreed to suspend those certificates at the request of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which on Nov. 22 instructed U.S. border officials to refuse entry to P.E.I. seed, table and processing potatoes.

According to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the federal Plant Protection Regulations require that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency issue export certificates only if the requirements of the importing country are met.

Thus, the U.S. request in November upended a previously agreed-upon system, in place since 2001, allowing exports to the U.S. from lower-risk zones in the province where the fungus that causes potato wart hasn’t been detected and where the same equipment wasn’t used.

Before the findings in two fields in October, potato wart had appeared in 33 fields in P.E.I. since 2000.

For Puerto Rico, P.E.I. potatoes are “an important staple” given their quality and affordability, AAFC said in a release late Tuesday. The U.S. territory imported $12 million worth of P.E.I. table stock potatoes in 2020.

P.E.I. potato exports to Puerto Rico specifically pose a “negligible” risk for transmission of potato wart, AAFC said.

“After considering Puerto Rico’s low risk for potato wart due to climate conditions, as well as the lack of a commercial potato production industry on the island, we are confident that with appropriate mitigations in place this trade can resume safely, and the U.S. potato industry will remain protected,” U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said in a separate release Tuesday.

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is now working “expeditiously” on its analysis for resuming imports of P.E.I. table stock potatoes to the continental U.S., AAFC said Tuesday.

CFIA “continues to have regular technical discussions with APHIS to provide the necessary scientific data and information to resume trade,” AAFC said.

Meanwhile, “P.E.I.’s hard working farmers can finally feel some sense of relief knowing their high quality potatoes will start moving again for export,” federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said Tuesday.

The P.E.I. Potato Board, in a separate statement Tuesday, hailed the Puerto Rico announcement as “a first step in an urgent effort to reopen the U.S. border to our world-class potatoes.”

It will be “important to understand what the requirements are for resumption of trade with Puerto Rico,” the board said, and “it will also be critical to understand a clear timeline for resumption with the rest of the U.S.”

‘Not just about P.E.I.’

“With this positive news it confirms the approach our government took in responding to the border closure was the correct one to ensure long-term access to American markets based on science,” Robert Morrissey, MP for the P.E.I. riding of Egmont, said in the federal release.

CFIA has previously said that if it didn’t agree to suspend the export certificates in question, a separate U.S. federal order would prohibiting import of fresh potatoes from P.E.I. would have followed and would be “very challenging to overturn.”

Ottawa in December pledged up to $28 million to help P.E.I. potato producers manage the surplus of potatoes resulting from the U.S. export suspension.

A resulting program, which also includes $12.2 million in provincial funding, was formally launched earlier this month with the goal of “diverting as many potatoes as possible to processors, packers and food banks.”

Where needed, the program will also help P.E.I. potato growers cover the cost of “environmentally-sound destruction of surplus potatoes” at a rate of up to 8.5 cents per pound.

It’s estimated that about 290 million pounds of potatoes will be diverted to other processors, packers, dehydrators, food banks and other markets under the program, AAFC said — while another 300 million pounds, or about 10 per cent of the province’s total 2021 production, will need to be destroyed.

The board, in Tuesday’s statement, thanked Bibeau along with P.E.I. MP and Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay for their work to resolve the matter, which it said “inevitably is not just about P.E.I. or potatoes, but more broadly about Canadian agricultural trade with our largest customer — the U.S.” –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Bibeau met in Washington on Thursday with U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, after shipments of P.E.I. fresh potatoes to the United States halted in November over U.S. concerns about potato wart.

Bibeau said Vilsack agreed to ask the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to conduct a risk analysis of P.E.I. potatoes to Puerto Rico within two weeks, and a risk analysis for the mainland United States in the weeks after that.

“It gave us a lot of hope,” Bibeau told Reuters. “Considering that our Canadian scientists are so confident (about safety), we think that the American scientists should come to the same conclusion.”

Table potatoes are those meant for human consumption without processing. Bibeau said it would take longer to resolve concerns about potatoes for processing and planting.

Potato wart can decrease crop yields but poses no threat to human health.

Vilsack’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Farmers in P.E.I. this year expected to sell $120 million worth of potatoes, some 300 million pounds, to the United States.

But within a week, farmers will begin destroying potatoes to prevent them from rotting, said Greg Donald, general manager of the P.E.I. Potato Board.

“Folks have just been hanging on, hoping that there will be a change in the border situation,” he said.

The United States has not detected potato wart since the 1970s, said Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council.

U.S. East Coast farmers and processors rely on P.E.I. for seed and fresh potatoes, Quarles said. At U.S. cold-storage facilities in the New England region, potato supplies dropped by 29 per cent to 29.2 million pounds over the year through Dec. 31, USDA data shows.

— Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg; additional reporting by Tom Polansek in Chicago and Leah Douglas in Washington.

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CFIA on Thursday reported it has completed this fall’s national survey for the soil-borne fungal potato disease “ahead of schedule.” The survey involves soil testing in areas of Canada that grow seed potatoes, and potato wart “was not detected.”

The survey results come as export certificates remain suspended for fresh P.E.I. potatoes otherwise bound for the U.S., following the confirmation of potato wart in October in two P.E.I. processing potato fields.

Canada said it agreed to temporarily suspend those certificates Nov. 21 at the request of U.S. officials — on threat of a U.S. federal order prohibiting import of fresh potatoes from P.E.I., which CFIA said Thursday would be “very challenging to overturn.”

U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said Nov. 23 his department would work with CFIA as the Canadian agency “delimit(s) the infestation and trace(s) the sources so that appropriate mitigation measures can be imposed and trade restrictions relaxed.”

The survey’s “expedited completion” is a major step for Canada to reassure international trading partners of the safety of Canadian seed potatoes, CFIA said Thursday.

The United States is also seeking that information in its “ongoing review” of CFIA’s containment and control of potato wart in Canada, the agency added.

Evidence gathered from the survey and forwarded Thursday to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) “should serve to provide reassurances they need that it is safe to resume the trade of fresh potatoes.”

APHIS, CFIA said, also wants Canada’s current probe into recent detections of potato wart on P.E.I. to show “appropriate mitigation measures and an ongoing monitoring plan for a clearly defined quarantined area.”

APHIS had said last month the detection of potato wart in the two P.E.I. potato fields in October and “a confirmed detection on a separate P.E.I. farm in 2020” indicated the potato wart pathogen “is present in areas not previously known to be infested.”

Data such as the national survey results are a step to assure that trade in potatoes from non-quarantined fields is safe and of no risk to pest-free areas, CFIA said.

“The CFIA stands firm that, based on the science, the risks associated with the transmission of potato wart from fresh potatoes remain negligible when appropriate risk mitigation measures are in place.”

Before the findings in October, potato wart had appeared in 33 fields in P.E.I. since 2000. A plan was put in place in 2001 with the agreement of the U.S. government, allowing exports from lower-risk zones in the province where the fungus hasn’t been detected and where the same equipment wasn’t used.

With P.E.I. potatoes now cut off from the U.S. market, the federal government on Monday announced $28 million to help redistribute now-surplus potatoes to food banks across Canada and dispose of further surplus production. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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