File photo of a P.E.I. potato field against the backdrop of the Confederation Bridge. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)

P.E.I. table stock potato exports to U.S. now allowed

New U.S. order replaces previous requirements; seed potatoes still blocked

Reading Time: 3 minutes Exports of Prince Edward Island table stock potatoes are again officially allowed to enter the mainland United States, after new U.S. entry rules regarding potato wart were published Friday. Canada’s federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said on Twitter that officials with the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) are now preparing to certify exports of eligible […] Read more

Manitoba researchers say that the mustard should be flailed rather than mowed and that it should be incorporated within a few minutes because isothiocyanates can volatilize within 20 minutes of chopping.

Mustard biofumigation: coming to a field near you?

Its anti-pest properties are confirmed in potato, but researchers are looking at whether it has prospects for other crops

Reading Time: 5 minutes There may be more than one reason to plant mustard in 2022.  Some producers will hope to springboard off 2021’s shortages and grow food-grade mustard for domestic and international markets. But others might choose mustard for a less conventional reason: as a biofumigant cover crop to help quash soil-borne pests and diseases. Mustard contains glucosinolates […] Read more


Federal Conservative ag critic and Alberta MP John Barlow speaks with P.E.I. potato grower Alex Docherty (r) in a March 18, 2022 photo. (John Barlow photo via Facebook)

Mainland U.S. moving to resume P.E.I. potato imports

P.E.I. growers get 'certainty' for spring planting, Bibeau says

Reading Time: 4 minutes Exports of fresh potatoes from Prince Edward Island to the mainland U.S. are expected to resume “soon” as U.S. officials move to put new rules in place for such shipments. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) said Thursday that Canada “is expected to soon resume exporting (P.E.I.) table stock […] Read more

“When someone says no, I’m just going to push 10 times harder,” says Ryan Albright, “especially if it’s a flat-out no.” It’s the spirit he needed to build Covered Bridge Potato Company.

A drive to succeed

How much energy and ambition does it take to succeed at value adding? Get ready for a serious reality check

Reading Time: 11 minutes Cutthroat. Vicious. Not for the faint of heart. Adjectives like these usually get saved for Wall Street bankers, high stakes poker or perhaps bull riding. It’s rare to find a person who’d apply them to making and selling potato chips. Take it from Ryan Albright, though. If anything, they’re much too mild for what this […] Read more


(Lightguard/iStock/Getty Images)

Saskatchewan pushes crop insurance deadline to mid-April

'Logistical challenges' led to extension

Reading Time: < 1 minute Saskatchewan farmers will get an extra couple of weeks to apply for, cancel, reinstate or change their crop insurance contracts for 2022, due to holdups in the delivery of their application packages. That deadline, originally March 31, has now been extended to April 14, provincial Ag Minister David Marit and his federal counterpart Marie-Claude Bibeau […] Read more

File photo of a P.E.I. potato field against the backdrop of the Confederation Bridge. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)

P.E.I. testing finds potato wart in another field

Testing stemmed from last October's detection

Reading Time: 2 minutes Soil samples taken on Prince Edward Island following detections of potato wart last fall have turned up another field with the fungus that causes the disease. The P.E.I. Potato Board on Tuesday said the field in question is near to, and is “directly associated” with, a field where the soil-borne disease was found in October. […] Read more


Lobster barns, lobster pots and the fishing boats of New London, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Farming in a postcard province

Guide Canada: Prince Edward Island’s agriculture, lobster and tourism industries share a single island — not always easily

Reading Time: 10 minutes On the first of May every spring, Kevin MacIsaac heads out on the water with his son-in-law, a lobster fisherman, to set the 300 traps they’re allowed under their quota system. For the next month, the pair are back out on the water to empty those traps — daily, at four in the morning.  On […] Read more

Greenleaf Foods, a subsidiary of meat processor Maple Leaf Foods, last month began providing its plant-based Lightlife Chick’n Tenders to convenience chain 7-Eleven in Canada. (Dave Bedard photo)

ADM releases alternative protein outlook for 2022

Reading Time: 2 minutes MarketsFarm — Major U.S. agribusiness ADM released a report Tuesday identifying the seven biggest trends in the alternative protein market, ranging from creating new protein sources from fungi to making plant-based meat substitutes more affordable and palatable to the general public. The seven trends in the report were: introduction of novel protein sources, using microbial […] Read more


File photo of a Prince Edward Island potato field. (Onepony/iStock/Getty Images)

P.E.I. potato exports cleared for Puerto Rico

U.S. territory has no commercial potato production

Reading Time: 3 minutes A U.S. territory with an appetite for Canadian potatoes and no commercial potato production to speak of will be able to resume imports of table stock potatoes from Prince Edward Island starting Wednesday. The resumption of exports to Puerto Rico, announced Tuesday, is a spot of good news for the province’s potato sector. Export certificates […] Read more

A tractor-mounted snowblower runs through rows of piled-up surplus potatoes on a field near Victoria, P.E.I., about 35 km west of Charlottetown, on Dec. 20, 2021. The shredded potatoes are expected to break down over the winter as compost. (Screengrab from P.E.I. Potato Board video)

Canada hopeful for P.E.I. table potato trade in weeks to Puerto Rico, U.S. mainland

Reading Time: 2 minutes Reuters — Canada is hopeful of resuming shipments of table potatoes from the province of Prince Edward Island to the U.S. territory of Puerto Rico in two weeks, and to the U.S. mainland in the weeks following that, partially resolving a trade dispute, Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau said. Bibeau met in Washington on Thursday with […] Read more