Potato wart rules aired Plan to clear way for P.E.I. spuds

PRESQUE ISLE – U.S. agricultural officials have proposed a plan that would allow some movement of potatoes from Prince Edward Island, where the potato wart was discovered last fall.

If the Canadian government accepts the plan, island spuds eventually could be permitted back into U.S. markets.

Any marketing of potatoes from the island province would be conducted under strict sanitary guidelines, according to the proposal. The plan also proposed that future imported potatoes come only from specific P.E.I. fields.

Under the three-year plan proposed by U.S. officials, P.E.I. fresh potatoes would not be let into the United States until after the 2001 crop.

Seed potatoes would be banned until after the 2002 crop was produced, providing no other cases of the potato wart was discovered on the island.

The plan was forwarded to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency in a March 19 letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The proposal was presented Wednesday during a meeting of the Maine Potato Board in Presque Isle.

Canadian officials are under no obligation to accept the U.S. proposal, but must agree to it if they want P.E.I. potatoes back in the United States. As of Wednesday morning, there had been no reaction from the Canadian government on the proposal, according to MPB officials.

“We don’t know what their final decision will be,” Michael Corey, MPB executive director, said.

The latest plan is an updated proposal from one made in December, when U.S. officials completely banned the import of P.E.I. potatoes.

The potato wart causes cauliflowerlike eruptions on the tuber, rendering the produce unmarketable. The disease, which American scientists say can’t be controlled chemically, can live in the soil for decades and render a region’s potato industry a “biological island.”

As a result, Maine has objected heatedly to any possibility of P.E.I. spuds traveling through the state to East Coast markets. P.E.I. and other Canadian officials have said that the U.S., particularly Maine, has overreacted to the wart scare.

The USDA letter said the measures were based on scientific principles generated by U.S. and international experts. In addition, the proposal is intended to have “minimal economic impact” to P.E.I. growers, the letter said.

“We believe that these measures provide a reasonable resolution to this complex situation,” the USDA letter stated.

Maine industry officials said Wednesday that they received encouragement during a recent meeting in Great Britain between American and European scientists regarding the U.S. response to the issue.

“We’re probably on the right track, basing [our decision] on science,” said Don Flannery, the board’s assistant executive director.

Under the proposed three-year plan, seed potatoes harvested last fall in and around the field where the disease was found may not be marketed outside P.E.I.

Only those potatoes produced outside the affected zones can travel to other provinces following sanitary rules, according to the proposal.

Table stock, or fresh, potatoes produced this year in the least affected P.E.I. areas may begin moving in Canada and the United Stated under strict sanitary regulations.

Seed potatoes from P.E.I. produced from the 2002 crop and from the least affected area of the island may enter the U.S. with a sanitary inspection certificate and under normal seed certification procedures.

Continuous soil testing also would continue throughout the island.