In November, the USDA’s Agricultural Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) halted certification of all potatoes from Prince Edward Island due to the detection of potato wart in two separate potato fields.
This week, APHIS announced that table stock potato shipments are expected to resume soon. However, these importations will only resume under ‘specified conditions’ to mitigate the risk of introducing the potato wart to U.S. farms. This disease reduces both yield and marketability.
Additional information can be found on the North American Plant Protection Organization Phytosanitary Alert System website.