Potato Growers Celebrate One Trade Win, Hope for More in 2018

There was a big trade win in 2017 for Northwest potato growers.

Kevin Shea with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said, “We reopened the market in Japan for Idaho potatoes for the first time in many years.”

That market will open for the 2018 crop of potatoes.

Shea said there is still one market that could potentially open to a larger scale on an agreement in 2018, Mexico.

“The potato growers there believe that the United States did have some pests and disease problems with our potato crop. We believe that those problems are very limited and do not pose any danger to Mexican potato production, but we continue to work with them.”

There is a current agreement that potatoes can be imported to Mexico, but they are mostly limited to border towns only.

Shea said there was nearly a deal to open the whole of Mexico, but it hasn’t been completed yet.