CFIA optimistic of lining up new markets for P.E.I. potatoes

With exports of P.E.I. table potatoes to the U.S. suspended, managers with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency say they are working to find markets for an enormous surplus.

The P.E.I. Potato Board has estimated about $120 million worth of potatoes would have been exported to the U.S. this year.

But the CFIA suspended exports in late November, following the discovery of potato wart in two fields in October.

"We've been engaging with our counterparts in other countries, working with our embassies abroad and our market-access colleagues within the CFIA," said Sylvie Lapointe, a vice president with the federal agency.

"A number of countries we're working with to open — not only to table stock potatoes, but also potentially to seed potatoes — and those include countries like Uruguay and Jamaica."

Potato wart is a serious agricultural pest, disfiguring potatoes and lowering yields, but the fungus does not pose a threat to human health.

CFIA suspended trade to forestall a similar action by the U.S. government, which it said would have been much more difficult to reverse.

The P.E.I. Potato Board reports that the closure is costing Island growers about $2 million a week. If markets cannot be found, hundreds of millions of pounds of potatoes will have to be destroyed this winter.

CFIA officials speaking before a committee of P.E.I. MLAs on Friday estimated the potato wart investigation could take until 2023 to complete.