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

P.E.I. potato growers, CFIA to draft plan for ‘pest-free places’

Plan would support movement of seed potatoes, feds say

Reading Time: 2 minutes A system of “pest-free places of production” (PFPP) is now on the drawing board for Prince Edward Island’s potato sector, following a meeting between federal and industry officials. 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 […] Read more

File photo of Province House, home of the Prince Edward Island legislative assembly, in Charlottetown. (Benedek/iStock/Getty Images)

P.E.I. names new deputy ag minister

Gordon MacFadyen replaces Brian Matheson

Reading Time: 2 minutes Prince Edward Island’s Premier Dennis King has named a new top bureaucrat for the province’s agriculture ministry and others, to manage a fresh round of post-election ministerial mandate letters. 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 […] Read more


Lawrence Macaulay, seen here in a 2018 photo, is taking the ag minister post for the second time. Photo: supplied/minister’s office.

Ag leaders welcome MacAulay’s appointment as AAFC Minister   

The minister’s new role was part of the Liberal government’s recent cabinet shuffle 

Reading Time: 3 minutes Industry leaders and organizations are welcoming the July 26 announcement that veteran MP Lawrence McAulay will be taking over the post of Minister of Agriculture and Agri-Food–and wasting no time calling him to action. It is the P.E.I. MP’s second time in the role, having previously held it between 2015 and 2019. MacAulay took over […] Read more

P.E.I. Ag Minister Bloyce Thompson speaks at a press conference in 2021. (Government of P.E.I. video screengrab via Facebook Live)

Thompson returns as P.E.I. ag minister

Ag and land ministry split; Compton not returning to cabinet

Reading Time: 2 minutes Prince Edward Island’s former agriculture minister is again its current ag minister, in a post-election cabinet shuffle by returning Premier Dennis King. 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 […] Read more


Darlene Compton, shown here on provincial budget day in 2020, became Prince Edward Island’s first female ag minister in 2022. (PrinceEdwardIsland.ca)

P.E.I. ag minister, ag critics re-elected

Tories return with majority; Liberals regain official opposition

Reading Time: < 1 minute Prince Edward Island’s incumbent agriculture minister and opposition agriculture critics prevailed in Monday night’s provincial election, in which incumbent premier Dennis King’s Tories were returned with a majority. 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, […] 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. 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


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

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

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

‘Expedited’ potato wart survey helps make case for P.E.I., CFIA says

National survey done 'ahead of schedule'

Reading Time: 2 minutes A national survey finding no potato wart in any “unregulated” Canadian fields should offer the reassurance on Prince Edward Island potatoes that trading partners such as the U.S. are now looking for, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency says. CFIA on Thursday reported it has completed this fall’s national survey for the soil-borne fungal potato disease […] Read more