b'A pile of potatoes at Victoria Potato Farm in Victoria, P.E.I. in January. The potatoes were unable to be sold due to the export ban for P.E.I. potatoes to the United States.PHOTO: VICTORIA POTATO FARMin decades. Current supplies of processingmake sense, growers are going to startincorporating or excluding them during and table potatoes are tight. Potato pricesplanting other crops that they can usebreeding. in the United States are extremely strongtheir irrigation infrastructure on. If theAll three growers had a slate of relative to past prices, according to aprocessors can match what we need forcharacteristics theyd like to see in their recent market report. With productionour cost of production, I think they willperfect potato variety, but Robertson costs on the rise, contract negotiationscontinue to grow as many acres as theysummed it up by singling out three main for this years processing crops have beencan for the processors. characteristics the perfect spud would harder than normal and are now at aAnd with new research shedding morepossess. standstill.light than ever on the potato genome, theFor a fresh potato, a russet type, Id That means growers have difficultfuture does indeed look bright for thelike to see a nice blocky type with smooth planting decisions to make. potato industry. European researchersskin able to store like a rock. It would be The versatility of the markets willwere recently able to create the firstnice if it was resistant to a few different determine a lot. We do grow some chipfull assembly of the potato genome.diseases like scab and late blight, take less stock that is shipped down the easternScientists can now more easily identifyfertilizer to grow. And if youre going to seaboard. Truck availability to ship thatgene variants responsible for desirable orshoot for the moon, Id want the yield to product is a problem. Were right in theundesirable traitsa first step towardsbe off the charts, Robertson explains. middle of getting contracts settled, trying to figure out what to plant. Its kind of early to tell what problems may arise, but in the next two or three weeks we should have stuff figured out and will better understand where were headed, Paget says.Wiebe adds many are waiting to seeP.E.I. Fresh Potato Exports Flowing to U.S. Againwhat direction contract prices go in beforehttps://spudsmart.com/p-e-i-fresh-potato-exports-flowing-to-u-s-again/deciding whether they want to expandP.E.I. Potato Growers Face Piles of Potato Wart Problemsinto potatoes or take advantage of higherhttps://spudsmart.com/p-e-i-potato-growers-face-piles-of-potato-wart-problems/commodity prices and plant crops thatAnother Dry Growing Season Hits Parts of Canadadont involve the capital costs needed for ahttps://spudsmart.com/another-dry-growing-season-hits-parts-of-canada/potato crop. Theres all sorts of opportunity toPotato Genome Reconstruction Opens Potato Breeding Possibilitiesexpand if you want to, but if it doesnthttps://spudsmart.com/potato-genome-reconstruction-opens-potato-breeding-possibilities/8SPUDSMART.COM Spring 2022'