RCMP officers near a building destroyed by Hurricane Fiona at Port aux Basques, N.L. on Sept. 26, 2022. (Photo: Reuters/John Morris)

Fiona batters Eastern Canada’s farms, fishery

'You'll hear me swearing in Saskatchewan'

Winnipeg | Reuters — Powerful storm Fiona slammed into Canada’s eastern fishing and farm industries over the weekend, smashing wharves, food processing plants and barns that will take months to repair. 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 […] Read more

McDonald’s and McCain support regen ag potatoes

McDonald’s and McCain support regen ag potatoes

McCain pledges to implement the practice on 100 per cent of acreage by 2030

Reading Time: < 1 minute McDonald’s Canada and McCain Foods Limited have announced the Future of Potato Farming Fund, a joint initiative that will offer $1 million to support the implementation of regenerative agricultural practices and technology by Canadian potato growers. The fund will be open to more than 130 farmers with more than 76,000 acres of potato farmland, and […] Read more


Signage outside McCain’s Farms of The Future site at Florenceville-Bristol, about 110 km northwest of Fredericton. (Photos courtesy McCain)

Learning from McCain’s regenerative farming practices

Potato processing giant aims to 'de-risk' practices for growers

In 2021 McCain said it was going to launch three regenerative potato farming operations by 2025 and would label them “Farms of the Future.” The first, just outside of Florenceville-Bristol, N.B., now offers data to reflect on the effectiveness of the practices at the potato farm after its first fully operational season. “If we don’t […] Read more

Snack maker chooses Airdrie for potato chip facility

Snack maker chooses Airdrie for potato chip facility

Reading Time: < 1 minute Alberta agriculture is adding another notch to its economic diversification belt. Super-Pufft, one of North America’s largest makers of salty snacks for retailers and national brands, is opening a $50-million potato chip-processing facility in Airdrie. “Hopefully very soon we’ll open our state-of-the-art facility that is going to cater to Western Canada and western United States,” […] 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

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

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

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


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

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

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'

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

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)

Feds put up funds toward managing P.E.I. potato surplus

Ottawa budgets $28 million for distribution and disposal

Prince Edward Island potatoes locked out of the U.S. export market will go either to food banks or “environmentally-sound” disposal with new federal funding. Federal Agriculture Minister Marie-Claude Bibeau on Monday announced $28 million “to support the diversion of surplus potatoes, including help to redirect surplus potatoes to organizations addressing food insecurity and support for […] Read more