The good news is that Prince Edward Island table stock potato exports will be allowed soon to the mainland of the United States – with conditions. The bad news is that seed potato movement will not open in the near future. For context, the five-year average of PEI’s certified seed acreage is 16,540 acres out of 85,600 acres total. (Source: CFIA)

In a March 26 and 27 blitz of the Island, federal ag minister Marie-Claude Bibeau met with her provincial counterpart Bloyce Thompson as well as John Visser, chair of the PEI Potato Board, Ray and Alvin Keenan, Rollo Bay Holdings, Souris; Thompson Potato Company, Urbainville Farms, J & J Farms. Her trip concluded in Charlottetown, meeting with the PEI Potato Board about how to best position the Island’s potato industry for success in the short and long term.

The four-month ban on exports, due to the positive identification of potato wart under the Long-Term Potato Wart Management Plan, has caused millions of dollars of lost sales. During that time, the United States Department of Agriculture as well as the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) completed a pest risk assessment that concluded the risk of shipping washed, sprout-inhibited potatoes from PEI was negligible.

As the Canadian Potato Council (CPC) points out, Canada accepts North American Plant Protection Organization (NAPPO) recognized practices to mitigate the risk of pests associated with the movement of potatoes, including the three quarantine potato pests known to infest the U.S. The Long-Term Potato Wart Management Plan determines the soil testing requirements for potato wart and those requirements have always been met. Soil testing is not required for table stock potatoes imported into Canada from any of the 16 states known to be infested with quarantinable potato pests.

The number of soil tests conducted for soil-borne pests including potato wart and potato cyst nematode in any given year is a function of the ongoing investigations associated with detections including the stage, number and size of associated fields. All fields associated with a potato wart investigation are retested five years after initiation which resulted in a large increase in testing between 2012 and 2014 associated with earlier detections. Soil testing in PEI for potato wart continues based on a pre-planned schedule. 

Potato cyst nematode, a soil-borne pest of quarantine significance, has been found to infest more acres in Idaho and with more frequency than has been the case with potato wart in PEI. For this disease, detection can only be reliably achieved through soil sampling and testing. For potato wart, both soil testing and visual inspection are the means for monitoring. CFIA and its partners conduct visual inspection through various programs on close to 100,000 samples of potatoes across PEI. Soil testing levels vary depending on investigative and monitoring needs, but visual inspection levels remain similar from year to year.  

See charts sourced from PEI Potato Board.

Source:  Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada March 28, 2022 news release, Canadian Potato Council backgrounder.