NPC: PEI Quarantine A Good Thing

Currently, the U.S. is not importing potatoes from Prince Edward Island in Canada due to an outbreak of potato wart. Kam Quarles, president of the National Potato Council, and said the quarantine is good for both the United States and Canada.

“We sympathize with the growers in PEI. When you're in a quarantine situation, there clearly is an immediate economic impact, and your ability to ship is impaired. Right now, seed producers in PEI can't ship to the rest of Canada, they can't ship to the US, and new protections are on for all other potatoes moving from PEI domestically in Canada, and certainly, the export restrictions to the United States are on all potatoes coming out of PEI.”

Quarles noted there are American growers in a similar situation.

“In the United States, we have quarantine areas in place right now, and the growers who are caught up in them have similar economic concerns. Clearly, they've got some stress on them. But the fact of the matter is the economic issues that are facing the growers caught up in the quarantine, we don't want those to expand and migrate and get into, particularly with wart, we don't have it in the United States. If it gets into the U.S., our export markets will shut off overnight. You're talking about well north of a $200 million dollar annual impact on the U.S. potato industry.”

Quarles stressed no one wants the PEI quarantine to be indefinite, stressing once local officials determine where the wart is, and where it is not, trade can resume from clean fields.

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