SASKATOON – Lowly prairie potatoes are becoming intercontinental travellers.
And some growers think the globalization of world trade might see western spuds sent to scattered soils.
“The bigger the market is, the more it helps us,” said Nobleford, Alta. seed potato grower John Mans. He produced some of the potatoes in a container shipped this month to Vladivostock, Russia.
Mans and two other western Canadian producers grew the potatoes for the Canadian subsidiary of a Dutch growers’ co-op.
The Can Agrico Potato Corp., based in New Brunswick, was asked by its parent to find and send the potatoes to Russia, because it was short of supply and Western Canada is relatively close to eastern Russian ports.
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“Logistically, it is better to supply Russia from Western Canada than it is from Holland,” said general manager Lawrence Kavanaugh.
But he said having plant breeders’ rights protected by law in Canada was as important a factor, since the Dutch co-op has special varieties it wants guarded.
A group of New Brunswick potato producers started the Dutch link when they were experimenting with different types of potatoes and wanted to see what varieties worked best. The Dutch group was worried about breeder’s rights, but even after that was settled by federal regulations, a phytosanitary hurdle had to be passed.
Disease control regulations forced all imported potatoes to go through quarantine, so instead of importing the whole potato, they imported tissue in test tubes and grew from there.
Most Canadian seed potatoes are sold to American growers and that’s who Can Agrico planned to sell to, but Kavanaugh said their marketing is wider now because the world has changed.
“In 1991 we were thinking North America,” he said. “The Berlin wall came down and eastern Europe opened up. All of a sudden Holland could sell all their seed production closer to home.”
It created a production void Kavanaugh hopes Canadian producers can help fill.
Although only one container of seed potatoes is being sent to Russia this year, the company has a confirmed order of 500 tonnes to another Pacific Rim country for next year. It thinks there may be many more future sales.
“Any market that’s closer to Canada than to supplying it from Holland, then we’ll be supplying it,” Kavanaugh said.
