b'NEW BRUNSWICK PRINCE EDWARD ISLANDJean-Maurice Daigle, director of marketJohn Visser, chairman of the Prince Edward information for Potatoes New Brunswick Island Potato BoardThe start of the year is not what was hoped for in NewThe Prince Edward Island potato industry received the Brunswick. 2022 started with the crop expected to be the mostconfirmation of the Federal Order DA-2022-14 published by expensive crop ever planted in the province due to record highUSDA-APHIS on April 1, 2022, that P.E.I. potatoes could once production costs. This was further aggravated by the conflictagain be shipped to our clients and consumers in the United in Ukraine and the fact that there was numerous unknownsStates. The Federal Order outlines the conditions, and farmers at planting time and even still. The crop was planted in goodand packers have been working with the Canadian Food conditions but has been challenged by one of the wettest springsInspection Agency (CFIA) to ensure the requirements are met.on record. Some areas have recently received upwards of 10As noted previously, we are pleased that the U.S. Department to 11 inches of water in the first three weeks of June. Many ofof Agriculture pest risk assessment concurred with that of CFIA, those areas were already wet from the above average rains of theshowing that P.E.I. fresh potatoes were and are safe to ship previous month as well. This has led to some areas of field beinggiven the risk mitigation measures that have been implemented.waterlogged and numerous incidences of seed piece decay. ItThese are similar to risk mitigation measures that U.S. growers has also caused issues with hilling and herbicide applications asfollow to access international markets themselves. fields conditions were unconducive to those operations at theP.E.I. potato farmers and packers resumed shipping P.E.I.s critical times.safe, healthy and world class potatoes to the U.S. on April 4, These issues will likely carry over and affect the yield potential2022, and volumes have returned to usual levelselevated in of this years crop. Planted acres were on par with last yearssome cases to make up for product shortages experienced by numbers even though the processing volume was increasedvarious production areas due to the reduced 2021 crop.slightly. Growers are unwilling to gamble with anything above P.E.I. potato farmers and industry expressed their sincere the contracted volume as the cost of production is the highest itsthanks to Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau ever been.and her staff and our MPs as well as to P.E.I. Premier Dennis Processing plants are running as hard as they can possibly runKing, Provincial Agriculture Minister Bloyce Thompson, Deputy and chewing up record amount of raw monthly. Processors alsoProvincial Agriculture Minister Brian Matheson and the whole have the intention of running all the processing potatoes left inP.E.I. Department of Agriculture and Land.Growers also remain the province before they switch to new crop in September. Therethankful for all the support shown by Island residents.It has are still a few lingering issues in the 2021 storage crop and themade all the difference through this process. processors are working through these the best they can.Unfortunately, the Potato Wart Ministerial Order remains Demand is still strong on the table side of things with shippersin place with blanket conditions for soil and potato movement keeping busy and making the most of the demand while stillfrom all areas of the Island. This Order doesnt recognize the dealing with transportation issues and the high price of freight. potato wart surveillance and testing that has taken place over New Brunswick growers remain optimistic conditions willthe past 21 years. These continuing conditions have hit our return to normal shortly, thus allowing them to resume fieldworld class seed potato industry extremely hard and work operations and catch up. Its too early and remains to be seencontinues with federal officials to bring resolution to this issue.how much the overabundance of rain will translate into the finalWe encourage anyone with any questions to contact the P.E.I. yield and quality of the current years crop. Potato Board and/or their Island suppliers if they have any questions.SPUDSMART.COM Summer 202249'