Russia opens to fresh U.S. potatoes

Farm and Ranch April 10, 2009 The United States and Russia recently signed an agreement that opened Russia for shipments of U. S. fresh potatoes. Matt Harris, Director of Trade for the Washington State Potato Commission, says the accord is the first between the two nations with regard to horticultural products. Harris: "What it allows us to do, it allows us to target in on specific pests of concern. So when we inspect those fresh potatoes for export to Russia we can then identify what Russia is concerned with, we can meet those concerns and allow the export to happen." Previously, limited amounts of U.S. fresh potatoes had been exported to the Russian Far East, but the agreement allows exports to European Russia as well. And Matt Harris says the Russians like potatoes. Harris: "Russia consumes a lot of potatoes. In fact I think the last statistic we had found the annual consumption of potatoes is about 313 pounds, which is a lot." That's per capita consumption. Harris says as of 2006 Russia imported nearly 400-thousand metric tons of potatoes. Harris: "Mostly those potatoes are coming from Europe. It is part of our organizational structure to identify that new marketplace which is Moscow-St. Petersburg and see if we can make trade happen." That's the Northwest Farm and Ranch Report. Brought to you in part by the Washington State Potato Commission. Nutrition today! Good health tomorrow! I'm Bob Hoff on the Northwest Ag Information Network.