The news is bittersweet. After 300,000 million pounds of Prince Edward Island’s 2021 potato crop were destroyed due to three findings of potato wart, American regulators have announced that tablestock exports can resume. 

The United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) made the announcement on March 24. The news release says that the U.S. and Canada have reached an understanding about the risk.  Canada will lift its ban while APHIS plans to publish a federal order outlining specified conditions. 

"USDA bases all our agricultural trade decisions on sound science," Tom Vilsack, U.S. secretary said. "We are confident that table stock potatoes can enter the United States with appropriate safeguards in place to ensure the U.S. potato industry remains protected."

USDA requirements and Canadian Food Inspection Agency mitigations require that imported table stock potatoes from PEI and the seed potatoes used to produce them must originate from fields not known to be infested with potato wart or associated with known infestations. The table stock potatoes must be washed in PEI to remove soil, treated with a sprout inhibitor, and graded to meet the U.S. No 1 standard. Shipments must be officially inspected by the NPPO of Canada and certified as meeting USDA requirements.

APHIS will continue to work with Canada to increase confidence in its long-term management plan for potato wart, specifically to finish processing remaining samples associated with recent detections, to expand surveillance of non-regulated fields in PEI, and to continue its national surveillance program.

Source:  USDA March 24, 2022 news release