Jerry Zeinstra fed his seed potatoes to the cows last week.
There was nothing wrong with the 250 tonnes of potatoes, which were specially grown for farmers in Washington state, but a tiny pest the size of a pinhead discovered in two northern Alberta seed farms in October has made them almost worthless.
The potatoes would have been worth $245 a tonne in Washington but fetched $20 a tonne at a nearby feedlot.
“This variety is not grown in Alberta, only in Washington. I don’t have no market for it,” said Zeinstra, who grows potatoes near Taber, Alta.
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Mexico and the United States closed their borders to Alberta seed potatoes after discovery of the potato cyst nematode.
The province’s 60 seed potato growers had hoped the borders would reopen in time to salvage their export markets, but time has run out. Now, potato growers can only hope the border will reopen in time to sell next year’s crop.
“We all have good hope the two governments can find a solution and an agreement that gets seed potatoes flowing again,” Zeinstra said.
Vern Warkentin, executive director of Potato Growers of Alberta, said half of Alberta’s 120,000 tonne seed potato crop will likely be sold for cattle feed.
“There’s 60,000 tonnes of seed that will go begging,” said Warkentin, who estimates producers will lose $35 million from the closed borders.
Most of the potatoes are varieties specially grown for American or Mexican markets and are not grown in Alberta or are not the right size for the fresh or processing market.
“They have no alternate market.”
Potatoes grown on the two farms where the nematode was discovered must be destroyed on the farms. The microscopic pest is not a risk for humans but it is transported through soil.
A formal testing process was put in place last March in which all seed lots destined for shipment to the U.S. or from the U.S. into Canada had to be tested for the potato cyst nematode. It was that testing process that discovered the nematode in Alberta.
Under last year’s testing process, three five-pound samples of dirt taken from the perimeter of the field were sampled for the nematode. New proposals would take samples from the entire field on all seed acres destined for export.
“I’m getting fairly optimistic that the proposals that are being discussed right now, if they can be made acceptable to all the provinces in Canada and the seed producing states, we can move forward,” Warkentin said.
Alain Boucher, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency official in charge of efforts to regain and retain the American markets, said it’s unlikely the rules will be relaxed for the 2007 crop.
Government officials are working on guidelines that could be put in place to prevent future border closures.
“Our hope is as soon as possible we are able to set the stage for 2008 and beyond,” he said.
