Farmers on Prince Edward Island expect to finish destroying about 136 million kilograms of potatoes by Friday, when a federal-provincial program providing compensation for the destruction ends. The farmers were left with the huge surplus of potatoes after the discovery of potato wart in two fields last year prompted a halt to exports to Puerto Rico and the continental United States.
The Canadian government imposed the ban on the export of table-stock potatoes — which are used for food, not planting — on November 22 to avoid a US ban, and the United States then said it needed to review Canadian mitigation efforts before shipments could resume.
Exports to Puerto Rico resumed February 9, but according to Greg Donald, general manager of the P.E.I. Potato Board, there was no way to catch up with all the lost sales: “It was inevitable. We just can’t make up the volume missed with US Thanksgiving, Christmas and the last few months.”
The surplus potatoes are spread on a field and then shredded with a large snowblower. The potato pieces decompose in the cold winter weather. “A potato is 80 per cent moisture. With the freeze and thaw they will quickly break down,” Donald said.
The US Department of Agriculture is expected to make a decision in early March whether to allow reopening the border to the rest of the United States.
Source: reddeeradvocate.com