Canada to Resume Exports of Table Stock Potatoes From Prince Edward Island
Canada will “soon” resume exports of table stock potatoes from Prince Edward Island to the contiguous U.S., after U.S. and Canada reached “an understanding” that will include new import requirements, the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service said March 24. “Canada will lift its ban while APHIS plans to publish a federal order outlining additional required mitigations to protect the U.S. potato industry,” APHIS said.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Export Compliance Daily combines U.S. export control news, foreign border import regulation and policy developments into a single daily information service that reliably informs its trade professional readers about important current issues affecting their operations.
The USDA federal order will require that imported table stock potatoes from PEI and the seed potatoes used to produce them “must originate from fields not known to be infested with potato wart or associated with known infestations,” must be washed in PEI to remove soil, must be treated with a sprout inhibitor and must be graded to meet U.S. No. 1 standard, APHIS said. Canada must inspect the potatoes prior to export and certify that they meet USDA requirements, it said.
Canada had announced the voluntary export ban in November (see 2111230041), preempting potential U.S. import restrictions after the detection of potato wart in Prince Edward Island. “APHIS will continue to work with Canada to increase confidence in its long-term management plan for potato wart, specifically to finish processing remaining samples associated with recent detections, to expand surveillance of non-regulated fields in PEI, and to continue its national surveillance program,” the agency said.