Potato Review

44 POTATO REVIEW JULY/AUGUST 2022 INTERNATIONAL NEWS Surplus is silver lining for food bank THE potato is a real ‘comfort food’ for Canadians this year. While most food items saw price increases over the past year, the potato dropped by 6.1% according to data from Statistics Canada. But the reason for the price decrease is far less comforting, and relates to the issue on Prince Edward Island which started in October. To o set some of the blow to growers, a perishable food rescue group that has worked with PEI growers for years asked the federal government for funds to buy some of the potatoes. The government then earmarked funds in a $30-million top-up to its Emergency Food Security Fund so organisations such as Second Harvest could buy and transport surplus potatoes to food banks and other emergency food-service groups across Canada. Second Harvest allocated around $4 million for the potatoes. Three to four trucks have been making deliveries daily, with a total 10 million potatoes projected to be rescued by June, according to Lori Nikkel, Second Harvest’s CEO. Some of the potatoes have gone as far as Yukon, said Kirstin Beardsley, CEO of Food Banks Canada, which expects to spend about $1.5 million. They’ve delivered about 66 truckloads of potatoes across the country, including to the Ikurraq Food Bank in Nunavut, which treated its clients to poutine, alongside caribou and stew. The potatoes were first trucked from PEI. to Manitoba, then flown to Nunavut. That amounts to about 3.6 million pounds of potatoes. Kirstin expects to reach 70 truckloads by the end of June. Large volumes of PEI potatoes arrived in Terrace, British Columbia, recently, distributed by local food programme workers, after being gathered for distribution by Second Harvest. On June 14th, 45,000 pounds of Prince Edward Island potatoes arrived for distribution around the northwest. Volunteers helped load pallets onto vehicles which then transferred them to local communities. Local food program workers had about a week to prepare for the arrival of the potatoes after receiving a notification from Second Harvest. Terrace was amongst one of around 200 locations across the country which benefited from the drop by Second Harvest and Food Banks Canada, the national organization which represents food banks. Growers face key decisions GROWERS on Prince Edward Island are concerned about what the new season will bring them, after potato wart findings prompted an export ban at the end of last year. After the disease, caused by the Synchytrium endobioticum fungus, was detected in two PEI fields, Canada shut down most shipments of the province’s potatoes to the United States, to dissuade the US from imposing its own ban. The ban is estimated to have cost growers more than $50-million in lost revenue. Some have had regular orders cancelled, even though there were no wart findings on their farm, and many are now considering cutting their losses and moving to di erent crops. Atlantic Canada reporter Greg Mercer reported in the Globe and Mail that while the export ban ended in March, its repercussions are still being felt. One grower, Andrew Smith, of Smith Farms, had been shipping around 25% of the potatoes grown on its 1,115 acres in the centre of PEI to a potato chip plant in Pittsburgh for 12 years, but was told the company was ending the business relationship. Borders have reopened between Canada and the US but the potato acreage on Prince Edward Island could end up being reduced this year. Growers, politicians and organisations had joined the call for the ban to be overturned, claiming only one field had been a ected and it was an unnecessary precaution that hit growers’ pockets hard. The border is now open for shipping of fresh potatoes that are thoroughly washed and treated with a sprout inhibitor, but growers are only allowed to ship seed potatoes to Canada and prevented from sending them into the US. This, combined with increasing fuel costs, is making many growers rethink their crop and preliminary reports reveal that PEI will cut acreage for the upcoming season.