PEI Premier calls on federal government to lift the ban on exports of crops to U.S.

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PEI Premier Dennis King says he is no closer to convincing Ottawa to lift a self-imposed ban on exports of fresh Canadian potatoes to the United States, after meeting Wednesday with federal cabinet ministers.

The ban, which went into effect on Nov. 22, has significantly affected the market for Prince Edward Island’s mainstay crop. The U.S. buys 40 per cent of PEI’s fresh potatoes and accounts for $120-million of the province’s potato sales annually, according to the PEI Potato Board.

Mr. King met with International Trade Minister Mary Ng and Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau about the growing crisis in his province. He also discussed the matter with David Cohen, the new U.S. ambassador to Canada.

“We’re trying our best here, but it’s been frustrating,” Mr. King said. “We are still at a loss as to why we would be kept out of the United States market.”

In October, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) suspended exports to the U.S. of seed potatoes – which are planted to grow the next year’s crop – after some of them were found to have a fungus that causes potato wart disease. The following month, the agency announced the ban was being expanded to include fresh potatoes.

Potato wart disease does not threaten human health, but it disfigures the edible part of a potato and makes it unsuitable for sale. The fungus is contagious and can spread if left unchecked.

Canadian industry leaders continue to say that fresh potatoes pose no risk to the U.S., because they are washed before they are shipped and are destined for consumers, meaning they are unlikely to be planted. The cases of fungus that led to the ban were found in a field that was already under surveillance, and they were never destined for the U.S., Mr. King said.

PEI farmers warn of devastation after Canada halts fresh potato exports to U.S. due to fungus outbreak

Ms. Bibeau said in November that the CFIA imposed the ban in order to get ahead of a threatened U.S. ban on PEI potatoes, which would have been more difficult to reverse than a Canadian ban.

While Mr. King said he understands Canada’s quick action was the best option out of a number of “really bad options,” he is convinced the situation comes down to trade disputes rather than science.

“We’re trying to bring a little bit of common sense to a situation that seems to be in the convoluted world of international diplomacy,” Mr. King said. He called the U.S. concerns a “knee-jerk reaction” to unfounded fears of contamination. His team spent the afternoon on Wednesday handing out 10-pound bags of PEI potatoes on Parliament Hill.

He said the province will purchase some unsold potatoes from PEI farmers to donate to Canadian food banks, but not enough to make up the sales shortfall. In all, the export crop amounts to hundreds of thousands of potatoes – enough to fill two NHL-sized skating rinks to 34 storeys each.

In a recent op-ed in the U.S. agriculture publication The Packer, Kam Quarles, chief executive officer of the U.S. National Potato Council, said the number of soil samples submitted for federal potato wart testing by PEI farmers had decreased by 75 per cent in the past five years. He cited figures from the CFIA.

“Soil sampling is the single most effective way to know where the disease is. If you’re not testing, then you don’t know how widespread the disease is,” Mr. Quarles said in an interview. “At this level of testing, it’s just guessing.”

The CFIA said in an e-mail on Wednesday that soil testing has not decreased, and that Canada’s tests fully comply with the agency’s long-term potato wart management plan, as well as a U.S. federal order put in place in 2015. Tests done after Nov. 30 were not included in the CFIA count Mr. Quarles relied upon.

The long-term management plan was implemented in 2000. Soil tests are conducted routinely, and also after every discovery of the fungus. Since 2017, there have been four investigations of positive tests for potato wart: one in 2018, one in 2020 and two in 2021.

According to Rebecca Lee, executive director of the Canadian Horticultural Council, soil samples fluctuate annually depending on demand and the number of fields under investigation. As a result, the number of soil samples reported is dependent on the magnitude of investigations under way. Visual surveillance of potato fields, she said, has remained constant over the past five years.

Even so, American potato associations continue to air concerns over possible contamination. Mr. Quarles previously told The Globe and Mail the U.S. domestic industry stands to lose $225-million in annual sales if potato wart becomes widespread. He noted that the U.S. does not stand to gain financially from blocking Canadian imports, because its farmers depend on PEI seed potatoes.

Canada continues to import U.S. products known to come from areas with similar quarantinable pests, said Greg Donald, general manager of the PEI Potato Board.

The province announced a $10-million contingency fund to support affected farmers in November, but neither it nor the federal government has announced further subsidies.

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