Potato farmers on Prince Edward Island are taking the federal government to court due to the decision to restrict the movement of their seed potatoes. As we all know, in 2021, a ministerial order stopped the transport of the Island's best-known export, table and seed potatoes, to the US after potato wart was found in a few Island fields. The shipments of table potatoes resumed in April 2022 after the U.S. Department of Agriculture gave Island farms the all-clear.
However, seed potatoes, which account for about 10 per cent of the Island's annual potato output, are still banned from the US pending the outcome of a more thorough USDA review. There are also restrictions on their sale to other Canadian provinces.
The application by the P.E.I. Potato Board is calling on the federal court to strike down decisions made by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and the federal minister of agriculture, who ordered the ban in 2021.
Source: atlantic.ctvnews.ca
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