Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau is responding to the crisis in the Prince Edward Island potato industry by proposing a working group to plan strategies.
The United States Department of Agriculture pressured Canada over the detection of potato wart on Prince Edward Island and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency banned exports to the United States.
That abruptly ended shipments of about $400 million a year and immediately backed up potatoes that were destined for clients in the United States. The provincial potato board and PEI’s premier and agriculture minister reacted in anger.
They pointed to an ongoing surveillance and quarantine program that seemed to have the disease under control, measures that previously had proven acceptable to the United States.
But U.S. potato growers lobbied their government to stop imports from Canada.
The Working Group brings together the full value-chain of the PEI potato sector to exchange information, develop strategies to determine and help mitigate impacts of potato wart on the sector, and identify potential short and long-term solutions to current trade disruptions, the Canadian government said.
The membership includes representatives from Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency and Global Affairs Canada, as well as representatives from the government of Prince Edward Island, the PEI Potato Board, PEI seed and fresh potato growers, and key potato processors.
During the meeting, the CFIA outlined the steps it is taking to gather the scientific evidence needed to assure its U.S. counterpart agency, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS), of the safety of trade of table and processing potatoes.
The CFIA is aiming to conduct another round of technical discussions with APHIS next week.
The working group will continue to meet to assess the impacts on PEI potato farmers and those along the value chain and is expected to examine all options to find end-point destinations for the sale and further processing of the existing stock of potatoes in PEI and other measures to support affected farmers.
Bibeau plans to attend the meeting today.
