After 16 months of closed borders, Alberta potato growers are once again able to ship potatoes to the United States.
The U.S. had banned seed potato imports from Alberta after the discovery of a pin sized nematode in two Alberta fields.
The ban was lifted Jan. 28 and Alberta potato growers immediately began shipping seed potatoes to key American markets, said Edzo Kok, executive director of Potato Growers of Alberta.
Kok said Alberta producers had expected the border to be reopened two months sooner that it did, which cost them early seeding markets such as Florida and California.
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“It was a long drawn-out process but we persevered, and based on responses from our American customers, they are happy to have Alberta seed available to them again,” Kok wrote in a newsletter to producers.
A $23.5 million compensation fund was established last year to help affected potato growers unable to sell their seed crop when the border closed.
Canadian and Alberta officials will travel to Washington, D.C., at the end of February to finalize new guidelines on what to do if the potato cyst nematode is found again in Canadian or American fields. The pest doesn’t pose a threat to human health but is recognized as a quarantine plant pest.
“It will ensure continuity in the future,” Kok said.
