Canada Consults on National Potato Wart Response Plan
On its draft National Potato Wart Response Plan, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has launched a 60-day consultation period. Comments on the consultation may be submitted by July 26, 2024.
In 2020, CFIA started reviewing how it handles potato wart. Newfoundland and Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) are the two Canadian provinces where potato wart has been found thus far.
“The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is consulting on their draft plan to update the National Potato Wart Response Plan to align with current science, international standards, and technologies. The Response Plan will be used to determine measures applied after the detection and confirmation of potato wart in a field. As part of this, CFIA has also reviewed Canada’s Potato Wart Domestic Long-Term Management Plan and the outcome of the consultation will be used to finalize a new long-term management plan,” according to a recent USDA/GAIN release.
Key topics for the Response Plan consultation are mitigation measures for three main focal areas: – the use of resistant potato varieties: – increased soil analysis; – additional equipment cleanliness requirements.
Comments can be submitted to CFIA by email until July 26, 2024, using the subject line “National Potato Wart Response Plan” at this email address.
Newfoundland and P.E.I. are the two Canadian provinces where potato wart reports have been made thus far. Since potato wart was discovered in Newfoundland in 1909, the government has implemented stringent bio-security measures, including banning the export of potatoes. On P.E.I., potato warts were initially found in 2000.
Following more detections in P.E.I., a U.S. Federal Order was issued in 2015, establishing import conditions for P.E.I. potatoes to prohibit the introduction of potato wart into the United States. Following the finding of potato wart in two P.E.I. potato fields in 2021, the U.S. Federal Order was changed in April 2022 to prohibit the importing of P.E.I.-grown seed potatoes into the U.S. while allowing imports of P.E.I. potatoes for consumption that met specific standards.
Previously to the April 2022 Order, commerce in P.E.I. potatoes to the U.S. had been hampered since November 2021, with the CFIA unable to certify P.E.I. potatoes for export to the United States due to potato wart detections. Canada also issued a Ministerial Order limiting the movement of seed potatoes from P.E.I. to other domestic or international markets.
Following the 2021 detections, CFIA initiated an investigation into potato wart on P.E.I. The results of soil sampling from that investigation, along with previous potato wart detections, have led to a cumulative total of 37 P.E.I. fields testing positive for potato wart since 2000; and the investigation which took place from October 2021 to July 2023 resulted in four detections from 48,789 samples. Fields with confirmed potato wart are classed as restricted fields and undergo a period of evaluation for several years before restrictions can be released.
