PEI Potatoes Are Moving To Puerto Rico Once Again

Feb 09, 2022

Shipments of PEI potatoes to Puerto Rico resumed this morning.

It's seen as the first step in resuming normal trade of the island spuds to the US, nearly 3 months after the Trudeau government imposed an export ban. The ban was issued by Ottawa after two more cases of potato wart fungus were found in fields on the island back in October. Both cases of the fungus, which isn't harmful to humans, were found in fields that were already tagged for the disease and potatoes grown in that soil were not part of exports to the US.

Earlier this month, following a meeting with her US counterpart, federal ag minister Marie Claude Bibeau was confident that shipments of potatoes from PEI would soon be returning to Puerto Rico and soon after, the US mainland.

Last week, the federal government announced a compensation package for PEI potato growers forced to destroy part of the record harvest, because it had nowhere to go. It's believed growers were forced to destroy the equivalent of 700 semi loads of table-ready potatoes.

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