Jul 29, 2024NPC comments to CFIA National Potato Wart Response Plan highlight concerns
The National Potato Council (NPC) and several state potato organizations have submitted comments to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) highlighting concerns about the potential spread of potato wart to the U.S.
The letter, dated July 26, is a response to the CFIA’s Draft National Potato Wart Response Plan. NPC emphasized the consequences of potato wart entering the U.S., including more than $225 million in annual direct export losses and billions more in indirect economic impact.
In December 2023, CFIA announced plans to complete a risk management review within the next year and to draft a replacement for its current risk management plan.
Concerns raised by the U.S. potato industry in the letter, in response to a CFIA request for public comment, include:
- Insufficient scope: The CFIA’s plan primarily addresses actions after potato wart detection, not preventive measures for undetected cases.
- Unknown extent of infestation: The full scope of potato wart infestation in Prince Edward Island (PEI) remains unclear and potentially larger than reported.
- Lack of comprehensive surveying: The NPC advocates for extensive surveys of all fields with products destined for the U.S.
- Unclear phytosanitary measures: The plan lacks specificity on immediate measures taken upon disease detection.
- Biosecurity and movement control: Concerns about the oversight and efficacy of cleaning and movement restrictions for machinery and waste material.
- Testing and reassessment timeframes: Questions about the adequacy of sampling levels and reassessment periods, given the disease’s long-term soil viability.
- Classification of suspect fields: Lack of information on the framework for classifying suspect fields.
- Seed production restrictions: Ambiguity in statements regarding seed production in restricted areas.
The full text of the comments is available here (.pdf).
The comments were endorsed by Colorado Potato Administrative Committee, Empire State Potato Growers, Idaho Grower Shippers Association, Idaho Potato Commission, Maine Potato Board, Minnesota Area II Potato Growers, North Carolina Potato Association, Pennsylvania Cooperative Potato Growers, Potato Growers of Michigan, Northland Potato Growers Association, Oregon Potato Commission, Washington State Potato Commission, and Wisconsin Potato & Vegetable Growers Association.
The U.S. border reopened to fresh potatoes in April 2022 after detection of Prince Edward Island potato wart in 2021 completely closed the passage in November of that year. The closing led to the destruction of hundreds of millions of pounds of seed and table potatoes in the Canadian province and sparked fear of the pathogen crossing into the U.S.
In August 2023, CFIA completed an investigation into PEI potato wart, finding the disease in four fields in addition to the two 2021 detections that closed the border and sparked the probe. The agency analyzed nearly 50,000 soil samples from fields associated with recent detections and characterized its findings as “expected in investigations of this scale.”
NPC CEO Kam Quarles, along with potato wart experts, discussed the risk of PEI potato wart crossing the border in the February 2024 issue of Spudman.
