A break in the clouds for Canada’s Prince Edward Island (PEI) potatoes

One group of people in the produce world who are desperate for good news are the potato growers of Canada’s Prince Edward Island (PEI).Some of their crop was found to have potato wart in October, making U.S. markets off-limits to them since November 21.Canada imposed the November ban on shipments to the U.S. on the entirely plausible grounds that the U.S. would have done so anyway.The key market here is Puerto Rico, which accounts for 25 percent of Canadian exports to the United States, valued at $18-20 million in a normal year. Some 80 percent of Puerto Rico’s potatoes come from PEI.The clouds appear to be breaking a little. Last week Canadian agriculture minister Marie-Claude Bibeau and Lawrence MacAulay, a member of the Canadian parliament representing PEI, were in Washington, D.C., on January 27, meeting with U.S. secretary of agriculture Tom Vilsack.Bibeau told CBC News that Vilsack would ask the U.S. Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) to conduct a risk ...