The threat of potato wart introduction to U.S. soils from potatoes from Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada, remains an ongoing and growing concern for the National Potato Council (NPC).
In November 2021, Canada voluntarily stopped exports to the U.S. following the detection of potato wart. In March 2022, exports of PEI table stock potatoes resumed under specific conditions, and seed remained prohibited. In October 2022, USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) released a report identifying the cost and describing the inherent risk to importing PEI potatoes — a risk that isn’t being mitigated.
The potato industry wants to know why.
“There has been a tremendous amount of political pressure from the industry on PEI,” said Kam Quarles, CEO, National Potato Council.
That political pressure resulted in a meeting between Prime Minister Trudeau and President Biden in the Oval Office. This was over two years ago, before shipments of PEI potatoes to the U.S. resumed. Once that reopening occurred, restored access meant a reduced pressure to act urgently to mitigate potato wart in Canada or to change export/import protocols, Quarles said.
Additionally, CFIA has had to recategorize some of PEI’s fields from low risk to high risk after being unable to contain the disease within its own soils.
This is a completely opposite outcome compared to the pale cyst nematode (PCN) issue that plagued Idaho potatoes in the 2000s and 2010s, which had countries, including Canada, banning Idaho potatoes for many years. The U.S. industry worked hard to combat PCN and meet Canada’s checklist of requirements before imports to Canada could resume.
The U.S. hasn’t held Canada to that same level of standard.
“I can’t stress this enough,” Quarles said, “all of the risk is directed toward the United States.”
Currently, there is no evidence that potato wart has made it to U.S. soil. However, the lack of urgency and the return to business as usual for PEI shipments comes at a cost for U.S. growers. USDA-APHIS identified the cost in its October 2022 report.
“You’ve got a government agency outlining all of these unmitigated risks, but then nothing is being done to stave off what is clearly a huge threat to the United States,” said Quarles. “It’s an unusual and bizarre and potentially horribly costly situation that we’re in right now.”
NPC continues to share its concerns with USDA and CFIA, including in a Jan. 18 letter submitted as public comments to CFIA’s risk management plan.
NPC estimates a loss of $225 million in annual exports to fresh potato markets and billions more in direct domestic costs and indirect industry impacts.
Farmers and other members of the industry can help put pressure on the appropriate decision makers. Though it’s difficult to influence the heads of state of another country, farmers can put pressure on their own leaders at USDA and Congress, particularly those who care about agricultural trade, and especially those who have potato production in their states or districts.
In the absence of movement by CFIA, NPC says these different groups must push USDA to act. Potato growing regions carry a big risk in terms of jobs and economic activity that is extremely vulnerable to loss if potato wart gets introduced into a U.S. production area.
Around the time of reopening access, NPC combed through CFIA’s testing data for PEI and potato wart and found that just as the disease was expanding, testing for it was declining. NPC demanded that CFIA restore testing to a level that was meaningful and responsible.
“We were vilified for making the suggestion that if you have a disease, you should actually look for it,” Quarles said.
When CFIA returned to the North American meeting in November 2023, they presented their process for adjusting their long term management, regulatory plan to get potato wart under control on PEI.
“I started connecting all of the timelines. [CFIA is] not going to have implementation on any changes to the extent that [CFIA will] actually make changes. That’s not going to occur until January 2025. Three years from the time the latest iteration of this crisis occurred. Three years of delays. That’s something Canada would never tolerate from the U.S. Ever.”
It’s a gigantic and very obvious frustration for the National Potato Council. And while the U.S. industry is very fortunate that potato wart hasn’t been transmitted to the U.S., leaving the risk unaddressed is just unacceptable.
“I can’t stress that enough,” said Quarles. “It is unacceptable for the United States to allow this threat to a very huge industry in the U.S.”
Main image: Tuber with potato wart. Photo: USDA APHIS
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