'No timeline' for opening P.E.I. potato exports, says U.S. agriculture secretary

The United States hopes to start allowing P.E.I. table potatoes into Puerto Rico within the next couple of weeks, but is not making any promises about the mainland.

By order of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, the border was closed to P.E.I. potatoes in November following the discovery of potato wart in two Island fields.

Last week, following a meeting between Canadian Agriculture Minister Marie Claude Bibeau and U.S. Agriculture Minister Tom Vilsack, Bibeau said she was optimistic shipments of Island potatoes would start to head to Puerto Rico within two weeks, and to the broader U.S. market shortly after that.

Speaking to CBC News in Washington Monday, Vilsack confirmed the two-week plan for Puerto Rico, but expressed less confidence in P.E.I. potatoes being exported to the mainland in the near future.

"Our hope is that we're able to give, in the next two weeks, the go ahead to resume activity and trade," said Vilsack.

"There's no timeline in terms of the mainland, but we did indicate that we would be thoughtful given the concerns that were expressed to try to review that information relative to the mainland as quickly as we possibly could, and, you know, hopefully get that matter resolved. But there was no timeline."

Potato wart disfigures potatoes and makes them unmarketable, but is not a threat to human health. It is considered a serious agricultural pest.

Wart was first discovered on the Island in 2000. A management plan was put in place in consultation with the American government, and until November that had kept the border open for 20 years.

The U.S. is P.E.I.'s biggest export market. If the border is not reopened millions of pounds of potatoes will have to be destroyed, the industry said.