{"id":2557,"date":"2021-12-23T00:16:19","date_gmt":"2021-12-23T00:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/?p=2557"},"modified":"2021-12-23T00:16:19","modified_gmt":"2021-12-23T00:16:19","slug":"p-e-i-seed-catalogue-and-suppliers-hit-by-potato-wart-ban","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/?p=2557","title":{"rendered":"P.E.I. seed catalogue and suppliers hit by potato wart ban\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Another P.E.I. business is taking a hit because of potato wart.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Veseys Seeds in York, P.E.I., has been told they will not be allowed to ship potatoes to home gardeners across Canada this year, and that will have a ripple effect to the growers that supply the mail-order company.<\/p>\n

\n

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) contacted Veseys on Monday, and told them that under the current rules\u00a0no seed potatoes from P.E.I. can be shipped anywhere in Canada, including those sold by Veseys.<\/p>\n

The CFIA\u00a0suspended trade in fresh potatoes to the U.S.<\/a>\u00a0on Nov. 21. The move was in response to American concerns about the discovery of potato wart in two P.E.I. fields in October.<\/p>\n

Potential refunds<\/h2>\n

The 2022 catalogue has been available to Veseys customers since November.<\/p>\n

“It puts us in an awkward situation because nobody really knows where the light at the end of the tunnel is,” said John Barrett,\u00a0director of sales, marketing and development at Veseys.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>
Veseys would usually ship more than 16 thousand orders, containing more than 21 thousand kilograms, or 47 thousand pounds of seed potatos, in two and three pound bags. (Veseys Seeds )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

“We can either continue to keep receiving orders every day and putting them in the system because\u00a0we don’t ship the potatoes ’til\u00a0April or May, when the weather is a little more friendly\u00a0and conducive to shipping a live product like a seed potato.<\/p>\n

“We\u00a0can continue to do that, and risk an incredible amount of time and expense in creating tens of thousands of refunds in the spring if it’s not resolved. Or we could just simply stop taking orders, which would be a substantial revenue loss for our company.”<\/p>\n

\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200b\u200bGardeners from coast to coast depend upon us\u00a0for the food that they grow<\/span>\u2014John Barrett, Veseys Seeds\u00a0<\/cite><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Barrett said the company would usually ship more than 16,000 orders containing more than 21,000\u00a0kilograms (47,000 pounds) of seed potatoes, in two- and three-pound bags.<\/p>\n

He said the loss would be substantial \u2014 into the six figures\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and he doesn’t understand why these potatoes going to home gardeners would be an issue.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>
Barrett has been sending letters to federal and provincial politicians, expressing his concerns about the ban on the sale of seed potatoes within Canada. (Jessica Doria-Brown\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

“No one’s been able to explain to us the logic behind that move,” Barrett said.<\/p>\n

“Being the largest mail-order gardening company in the country, gardeners from coast to coast depend upon us for the food that they grow in their gardens. So it’s a puzzling decision that we don’t really understand.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

‘Very disruptive and disturbing’<\/h2>\n

Barrett says he’s also concerned about the impact to the growers who provide the seed for the mail-order business, including Barry and Ellen Cudmore in Brackley, P.E.I.<\/p>\n

The Cudmores sells seed potatoes to Veseys, as well as to 23 garden centres in Atlantic Canada.<\/p>\n

“It is devastating because between them and ourselves, we were literally supplying thousands of gardeners across Canada, just very disrupting and disturbing,” Barry Cudmore said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>
Cudmore has been in contact with some of the stores that he supplies, and they have told him they are willing to wait until early in the New Year before seeking other sources for spring planting. (Submitted by Barry Cudmore )<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

“Our farm didn’t cause this issue yet we’re being asked to pay for the issue, we’re affected.<\/p>\n

“I would say that every Islander, either directly or indirectly, is going to be affected by this sooner or later, if it’s not quickly resolved.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

We spent many years to build the market up for these potatoes\u00a0\u200b\u200b\u200b<\/span>\u2014Barry Cudmore, seed potato grower<\/cite><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Cudmore has been in contact with some of the stores that he supplies, and they have told him they are willing to wait until early in the New Year before seeking other sources for spring planting.<\/p>\n

But he worries about losing their business\u00a0if the issue isn’t resolved.<\/p>\n

“We spent many years to build the market up for these potatoes, and we grow potatoes specifically for these markets, and we source potatoes from other growers on P.E.I. to supply the varieties that we don’t produce,” Cudmore said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“I’m leery, and I wouldn’t blame the customers for going somewhere else because they want potatoes in their garden centres. And we may lose out.”<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n
\n
\"\"<\/div>
Cudmore says ‘every Islander, either directly or indirectly, is going to be affected by this sooner or later’ if the potato wart issue is not quickly resolved. (Shane Hennessey\/CBC)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

<\/span><\/div>\n

Barrett has been sending letters to federal and provincial politicians, expressing his concerns about the ban on the sale of seed potatoes within Canada.<\/p>\n

He said seed orders start to ramp up in mid-January, so for now it will be business as usual, hoping for\u00a0a resolution in time for the company’s busy season.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n


\n
Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Another P.E.I. business is taking a hit because of potato wart.\u00a0 Veseys Seeds in York, P.E.I., has been told they will not be allowed to ship potatoes to home gardeners across Canada this year, and that will have a ripple effect to the growers that supply the mail-order company. The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[45],"tags":[98,2319,133,2318,2321,918,2320,2322],"class_list":["post-2557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ripple","tag-ban","tag-catalogue","tag-hit","tag-pei","tag-potato","tag-seed","tag-suppliers","tag-wart"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/barry-cudmore-seed-potatoes-brackley-pei.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2559,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2557\/revisions\/2559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/egrowonline.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}