At 32.063 million hundredweight of potatoes this year, Alberta vaulted from third to first place as it improved on the previous year’s crop of 26.813 million. Manitoba moved into second spot from third with its harvest of 29.760 million cwt. following last year’s 26.139 million. Prince Edward Island saw its output reduced in 2023 to 25.813 million cwt. from 27.789 million. In 2023, the trio combined for 68 per cent of Canada’s total potato harvest of 128,801 million cwt.

Victoria Stamper, general manager of the United Potato Growers of Canada, noted production in Eastern Canada was mostly down in 2023. She said PEI was hit with rain during its harvest, while Quebec and New Brunswick contended with wet conditions through their summer and during harvest as well.

Stamper said Manitoba and especially Alberta saw greatly different conditions in 2023.

“Alberta has been in drought conditions for a few years now. They’ve been helped out with irrigation. Even that was getting tough. There were some growers who moved some their irrigation to from other crops to potatoes,” she commented.

StatCan calculated 397,232 acres of potatoes were seeded in Canada in 2023, of which 387,061 were harvested. That’s an improvement from 385,146 and 379,955 respectively in 2022. The average yield was up for a third consecutive year at 332.8 cwt. per acre compared to 325.1 in 2022 and 318.7 in 2021.

Alberta’s planted potato area came to 80,100 acres in 2023, up from 73,080 the previous year. Harvested acres rose to 76,440 from 71,325. Yields pushed past the 400 mark this year, at 419.5 cwt./ac. compared to 375.9 in 2022.

In Manitoba, planted acres nudged up to 81,000 in 2023 from 80,500 and those at harvest rose to 80,000 from 79,250. Yields improved to 372 cwt./ac. this year versus the 329.8 in 2022.

PEI’s potato acres saw some slight adjustments, with planted at 84,500 this year from 83,300 and harvested acres dipped to 83,000 from 83,200. Yields retreated to 311 cwt./ac. this year from the 334 in 2022.

As for the rest of the provinces, their potato crops were: New Brunswick 14.879 million cwt., Quebec 13.492 million, Ontario 8.602 million, British Columbia 2.140 million, Saskatchewan 1.780 million, Nova Scotia 222,000 and Newfoundland and Labrador 50,000.

Manitoba is scheduled to mark its Potato Production Days at the Canad Inns in Brandon from Jan. 24 to 25.

— Glen Hallick reports for MarketsFarm from Winnipeg. 

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The new plan would replace the existing Potato Wart Domestic Long Term Management Plan, the CFIA said in a news release.

The CFIA wants input on risk management documents (RMDs), which include those related to seed propagation in restricted fields, categorization of fields and biosecurity control programs.

Recommendations made by an international advisory panel and a Canadian industry working group were used in the development of these documents.

The deadline to share feedback is Jan. 31. The documents can be viewed on the CFIA’s website.

The CFIA also designed a tool to help Prince Edward Island potato producers quickly see where land restrictions are in place, and an industry guide to best management practices, it said in a Dec. 20 news release.

The 2023 potato wart survey didn’t find any new instances of the fungal disease in P.E.I. The rest of the survey results haven’t yet been published, the news released added. Last year’s survey resulted in a clean bill of health.

In late 2021, Canada halted exports of P.E.I. potatoes to the U.S. after high levels of potato wart were found in the province. This led to a $28 million federal aid program and attempts to divert potatoes to other processors, packers and food banks.

Trade resumed to Puerto Rico in February, 2022, and to the continental U.S. in April that year.

The CFIA said it plans to share the new national potato wart response plan for public comment in early spring.

—Geralyn Wichers is associate digital editor of AgCanada. She writes from southeast Manitoba.

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Federal Agriculture Minister and P.E.I. MP Lawrence MacAulay on Friday reported meeting with staff and representatives of the P.E.I. Potato Board, to discuss next steps in the face of new potato wart-related restrictions on the province’s crops since 2021.

Potato wart was first detected in the province in 2000, and after a six-month ban on P.E.I. potato exports to the U.S., a system was put in place allowing exports from lower-risk zones where the fungus hasn’t been detected and where the same equipment wasn’t used.

While not considered a human health or food safety risk, potato wart is known to reduce crop yields and can make potatoes unmarketable by ruining their appearance.

The zone system allowing U.S. exports continued up until October 2021, when potato wart was confirmed in two P.E.I. fields which were related to previous detections and were already under regulation. In November that year, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) advised U.S. border services to reject all shipments of P.E.I. potatoes.

P.E.I. potatoes for consumption were admitted again to the U.S. the following April — but exports of field-grown P.E.I. seed potatoes to the U.S. remain prohibited.

A federal ministerial order in place since last Nov. 21 allows for P.E.I. seed potatoes to move to other provinces on a case-by-case basis, and provides for tighter risk controls on P.E.I. table stock and processing potatoes.

‘Next steps’

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) last month completed its investigation into the two 2021 detections. The agency said it collected and analyzed 48,789 soil samples from P.E.I. fields associated with the two findings. Those samples confirmed potato wart in four more fields, bringing the province’s total to 37 affected fields since 2000.

Thus, CFIA said last month, the risks associated with the transmission of potato wart from fresh potatoes from P.E.I. “remain negligible when appropriate risk mitigation measures are in place and followed.”

With the probe complete, MacAulay and CFIA said Friday they’re “committed to engaging with the industry on next steps.”

Those steps, they said, will include criteria for designating PFPP in the province, to “support the movement of commodities including seed potatoes off of the island.”

Plans for a PFPP system were “discussed and welcomed” by the P.E.I. Potato Board during the meeting, the government said.

Over 95 per cent of P.E.I. potatoes continue to remain eligible for export to the rest of Canada and to the U.S., MacAulay said in a federal release, emphasizing “the importance of working together with growers as they maintain and enhance control measures, such as biosecurity and traceability activities” so as to maintain market access.

CFIA said it will “continue to engage” with the P.E.I. industry on program elements to renew Canada’s National Potato Wart Response Plan and work toward implementation of that updated plan in 2024.

A new long-term plan to help continue to contain, control, and prevent the spread of potato wart “will help maintain and improve the economic sustainability of the potato sector in P.E.I. and across Canada, and maintain crucial export markets,” the agency said. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Gordon MacFadyen, most recently executive director of fiscal management and assistant secretary to Treasury Board with the provincial finance department, was announced Aug. 8 as deputy minister of agriculture, replacing Brian Matheson.

Matheson, who was shuffled Aug. 8 to deputy minister for transportation and infrastructure, had just been named deputy minister for agriculture in April, after holding the title on an acting basis since June 2019.

During his stint as executive director for fiscal management, MacFadyen was responsible for the provincial budget and quarterly forecasting. He also served five years as provincial comptroller and previously held senior financial roles with the education and health ministries. Before joining the province, MacFadyen was director of finance for the City of Summerside.

The deputy ministers’ shuffle is meant “to deliver on priorities as outlined in the ministerial mandate letters that are also being released today,” the province said Aug. 8.

For Bloyce Thompson, who was named as agriculture minister after last April’s provincial election, the Aug. 8 mandate letter from King includes priorities such as:

• continued advocacy for seed potato producers to to restore both domestic and export markets for seed potatoes;
• exploring controlled-environment farming and indoor farming, via greenhouses, tunnels, hydroponics and enhanced storage and refrigeration;
• continuing work on financial and support programs to increase beef cattle production in the province;
• starting the process of creating a provincial food waste reduction strategy;
• working with the housing, land and community ministry toward a land-use plan to maintain agricultural land for food production;
• modernizing the provincial Agricultural Insurance Corporation;
• a long-term plan for safe management of deadstock; and
• working with relevant ministries to help farmers address “workforce challenges in agriculture, specifically focused on housing.”

The changes to provincial departments’ senior management “provide an opportunity for a fresh perspective, renewed energy” and “an opportunity for growth and development for our senior leadership team as a whole,” King said in a release Aug. 8. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Bloyce Thompson, MLA for the district of Stanhope-Marshfield since 2019 and ag minister from 2019 until last summer, was again appointed April 14 as King’s minister of agriculture, justice and public safety and attorney general.

King’s shuffle also decouples what was until now the ministry of agriculture and land. The latter file now goes to a “realigned” department of housing, land and communities, to be led by Rob Lantz, the rookie Progressive Conservative MLA for Charlottetown-Brighton.

The new housing, land and communities department is expected to be “working closely with municipalities on developing a provincewide land-use plan” for Prince Edward Island, the government said in a release.

Thompson, a third-generation dairy farmer and former board member with Dairy Farmers of P.E.I., was first named ag minister as a rookie MLA following the April 2019 provincial election, in which he unseated incumbent premier Wade MacLauchlan.

King last July had shuffled Thompson over to the economic growth, tourism and culture portfolios, and replaced him on the agriculture and land, justice and public safety files with then-finance minister Darlene Compton.

Compton, who’d been the province’s first female ag minister, has been shuffled out of cabinet in King’s April 14 announcement. Thompson also becomes deputy premier, a role Compton had held since 2019.

“This team is a mix of experience and new perspectives, geographically represents our island, and has a record number of women serving as members of executive council,” King said in his release.

Both Thompson and Compton easily won their ridings in the April 3 provincial election. Thompson held his constituency of Stanhope-Marshfield with 2209 votes, a spread of 1,643 votes over his lone challenger, NDP candidate Marian White.

New deputy

Separately on April 14, King also announced changes to the senior civil service, including the formal appointment of Brian Matheson as deputy minister of agriculture, effective April 17.

Having already served as acting deputy minister of agriculture and land since 2019, Matheson has been with the provincial ag department for about three decades, most recently as director of policy and agriculture resources since 2015.

Matheson has taken part in national policy and regulatory discussions and negotiations at the federal/provincial/territorial table over the past five years as part of his policy and regulatory responsibilities, the province noted.

As the province’s seniormost ag bureaucrat, Matheson replaces Laurie Loane, who left the deputy minister post in 2019 to return to her previous job as executive director of the P.E.I. Agriculture Sector Council. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Darlene Compton, King’s agriculture minister since last summer and his incumbent deputy premier, won re-election Monday for the Progressive Conservatives in her district of Belfast-Murray River.

Compton, the province’s first female agriculture minister and first female deputy premier, won 1,510 of 2,574 votes — well ahead of Liberal challenger Katherine Bryson with 520.

The incumbent opposition Green Party’s leader and agriculture critic, Peter Bevan-Baker, also held his district of New Haven-Rocky Point, drawing 1,457 votes on Monday.

Bevan-Baker’s margin of victory was 106 votes against Tory challenger Donalda Docherty — a relatively narrow spread compared to the 2019 general election. Sharon Cameron, the provincial Liberals’ new leader, came in third in New Haven-Rocky Point with 502 votes.

Bevan-Baker’s Greens also lost official opposition status, keeping just two of their eight seats from 2019. Cameron’s Liberals won three seats — down from six in 2019, but enough to regain official opposition — while the Tories took 22 seats, lifting them out of minority government status.

The Liberals’ incumbent ag critic, former ag minister Robert Henderson, held his district of O’Leary-Inverness with 894 votes. That also gave Henderson a relatively narrower margin, 156 votes over Tory challenger Daniel MacDonald, a beef and dairy farmer. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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On March 13, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) said results from their 2022 potato wart survey had not found any cases of the soil-borne fungus. The agency had tested nearly 1,500 soil samples from fields in British Columbia, the three Prairie provinces, Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick and Nova Scotia.

Prince Edward Island, whose potato sector has been newly haunted by the fungus following cases in 2021 and 2022, was not directly included in the survey. However, the CFIA targeted farms that had a history of sourcing seed potatoes from the Maritime province.

The agency described the survey as “an important step in the government of Canada’s efforts to help contain and control the spread of potato wart and reassure domestic and international trading partners.”

In October 2021, two processing potato fields in Prince Edward Island were confirmed infected with potato wart. The news had immediate trade impacts to the sector.

Citing U.S. concerns, the federal government locked down fresh potato exports from the province. Trade of eating potatoes resumed to the U.S. in April 2022, although export of seed potatoes to the U.S. still remains off limits.

Following the findings, the federal government promised $28 million to help impacted producers divert their sudden potato surplus. Prince Edward Island pitched in a further $12.5 million.

Those first cases were followed by confirmations in February 2022, July 2022 and, frustratingly for the potato sector, December of last year.

Domestic and export requirements and restrictions are still in place around movement of potatoes out of the province, as well as mitigation orders around things like soil movement and farm equipment.

Producers have said that millions of pounds of potatoes had to be destroyed following the loss of markets.

The CFIA has said that the cluster of potato wart cases represents “the largest ongoing investigations since the pest was first detected in P.E.I in 2000.

“The size and scope of these ongoing investigations required the strongest regulatory action to date to help protect against the further spread of potato wart outside of P.E.I.”

While not part of the national survey, there have been investigations specific to P.E.I. Almost 44,700 samples had been taken by the end of 2022 as part of that program, about 35,500 of which have been processed.

The CFIA has said that the national survey will dovetail with ongoing potato wart investigations.

Survey results have been forwarded to the CFIA’s American counterpart, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS).

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Across Canada, nearly 122.9 million hundredweight (cwt) of potatoes were harvested last year, with an average national yield of 322.3 cwt/acre on 381,351 acres.

Alberta rose from third into the top spot in 2022, reaping 26.81 million cwt of spuds, up from 24.61 million the year before. The province’s yield came to 375.9 cwt/ac. with 71,325 acres harvested.

In terms of production, Prince Edward Island slipped from first to second at 26.6 million cwt as output eased back from 27.21 million in 2021. Farmers in Canada’s smallest province harvested 81,900 acres, which fetched 324.8 cwt/ac.

Manitoba rounded out the top three at 26.14 million cwt, up from 24.02 million the previous year. The harvest took in 79,250 acres with a yield of 329.8 cwt/ac.

New Brunswick and Quebec were the next productive provinces at 17 million and 14.84 million cwt respectively. In 2021, New Brunswick hauled in 18.2 million cwt and Quebec was 14.1 million. In 2022, the yield in New Brunswick came to 329.5 cwt/ac. and Quebec garnered 312.3.

Ontario was sixth in 2022 at 8.16 million cwt of potatoes on 37,100 acres for a yield of 219.9 cwt/ac. The year before, the province brought in 8.95 million cwt.

As for the rest of Canada in 2022, the potato crop in British Columbia was 1.6 million cwt, along with 1.45 million in Saskatchewan, 240,000 in Nova Scotia and 52,000 in Newfoundland and Labrador. (In a footnote, StatCan said its production numbers for Saskatchewan and Newfoundland are to be used with caution.)

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One of the worst storms Canada has ever faced left more than one-third of customers in Nova Scotia without power, swept homes into the sea and left at least one person dead.

Fishing is a key industry in Canada’s Atlantic provinces, which produce some of the world’s largest lobster exports.

Fiona destroyed some harbours on Prince Edward Island and scattered lobster traps for miles, leaving a long clean-up ahead, said Allan MacQuarrie, a director of the P.E.I. Fishermen’s Association.

“I’m scared to know what it’s going to look like, to be honest with you,” said MacQuarrie, who was cleaning up toppled trees at his home and had not yet checked his own crab traps.

“I’ll know tomorrow and you’ll hear me swearing in Saskatchewan.”

Osborne Burke, general manager of the Victoria Co-op Fisheries in Neils Harbour, N.S., told news outlet CBC that the plant suffered “horrendous” damage, and several 40-foot sea containers full of frozen fish were “thrown around like dominoes.”

He said no one was seriously hurt, but repairs will cost more than $1 million.

Canada’s lobster industry was spared worse damage because fishing is minimal at this time of year, said Geoff Irvine, executive director of the Lobster Council of Canada industry group. Fishers are planning to seek government approval to extend the season in certain areas to make up for lost time, he said.

National fishing and seafood accounted for $7.6 billion in Canadian gross domestic product in 2018, according to a 2021 government report.

Farm damage

Many P.E.I. dairy farmers lost power, shutting down milking systems that run on electricity, said Donald Killorn, executive director of P.E.I. Federation of Agriculture.

The storm disrupted early harvesting of potatoes and other crops, he said. P.E.I., the smallest province, produced one-fifth of Canada’s potatoes last year, according to Statistics Canada. Much of its crop is exported to the United States.

“We see huge destruction in our barns and our storage facilities,” Killorn said. “Damage to infrastructure is significant, it’s widespread and it’s catastrophic.”

— Reporting for Reuters by Rod Nickel in Winnipeg.

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Premier Dennis King has named Darlene Compton, MLA for the riding of Belfast-Murray River, as minister of agriculture and land, justice and public safety minister and attorney general, replacing Stanhope-Marshfield MLA Bloyce Thompson.

Thompson, who had handled the ag and justice portfolios since 2019, now becomes minister of economic growth, tourism and culture. In that role he replaces Kensington-Malpeque MLA Matthew MacKay, who moves to the social development and housing file.

Compton, who keeps her role as deputy premier, had served as the Progressive Conservative government’s finance minister since 2019, along with a short stint (2019-20) as minister for the status of women.

Before being elected to the legislature in 2015, Compton worked as administrator of the Dr. John Gillis Memorial Lodge at Belfast, about 35 km southeast of Charlottetown. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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