Canada’s ban on potato exports from Prince Edward Island to the United States is lowering prices across Canada and putting some island growers into dire straits.
Randy Visser, owner of G. Visser and Sons, said in an interview that some producers have taken to sending potatoes to food banks across the province as a way to use up excess crops.
“Every home we can find that can utilize these potatoes before they’re destroyed is absolutely the priority,” Visser said.
Visser said he has about 18 million kilograms of potatoes and would usually be shipping more than 540,000 kilograms a week across the border.
Mark Craig, who farms nearly 65 hectares of potato fields, said Wednesday he has about 100 trailer truckloads of potatoes stored away and that he’s worried about their fate.
“It’s just a shame to have to even think about destroying this crop,” he said in an interview reported by Canadian Press.
Canada has said it acted first to impose the ban because it will be easier to get it reversed than if it had waited for the U.S. to impose it.
United States potato growers persuaded the government that potato wart disease on a couple of island farms poses a threat to their industry.
The disease has been there for a few years and is being managed by close scrutiny and control measures that, until now, had satisfied the U.S. government.
