Potato Wart Update Pt 2
I’m Bob Larson. Potato wart is under quarantine in Canada in fields on Prince Edward Island and that may be the case for a while, until proper soil testing can be done to fully evaluate the situation.
Kam Quarles, CEO of the National Potato Council, says it has to be done and it’s relatively easy …
QUARLES … “It’s not a complicated process. Obviously, you’ve got to take the time to do the soil testing, but I think everybody on both sides of the border agrees, you do not want this to be a long-running situation. You simply want to be able to be shipping from clean fields both domestically in Canada and to the United States. That’s the end goal here.”
Quarles is confident the PEI Potato Board is pressing to get the testing done …
QUARLES … “That’s what I believe will satisfy both the plant health professionals in Canada, who applied these measures, and also the United States certainly for the purposes of reopening the export trade.”
Quarles says it’s really up to them, but we are behind them ...
QUARLES … “Once that data is available, we are going to press for it to be evaluated by U.S. authorities as rapidly as possible to determine what should be eligible to ship and where the problem areas are.”
Quarles says he understands the frustration, but we have to make sure potato wart doesn’t get into the U.S. because the economic impact would be exponentially worse.
