The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) says Canada will soon resume exporting table stock potatoes from Prince Edward Island into the contiguous United States.
The Hagstrom Report says the National Potato Council is unhappy with the news and worried about potato wart disease spreading from the island into the U.S., where it currently doesn’t exist.
An APHIS news release says the agency determined PEI potatoes for consumption only may once again be exported to the U.S. under specified conditions that will pose little risk of introducing potato wart disease into the country.
The potato council says, “We are dismayed to learn that USDA is allowing PEI potato shipments into the U.S. to resume before finishing soil tests for the destructive disease.”
Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack says the decision is based on sound science, and the agency will put safeguards in place to protect the U.S. potato industry.
There is no cure for potato wart disease.
(From the National Association of Farm Broadcasters)