P.E.I. processing potatoes heading to Alberta french fry plant 

A P.E.I. company has brokered a deal to send as many as 700 tractor trailer loads of surplus P.E.I processing potatoes to a french fry plant in Alberta.

The deal was put together by Terry Curley of Monaghan Farms, who is part of a working group set up to deal with the potato wart crisis. 

"Anything leaving P.E.I. is a help. There's no question about that. We as an industry could have as many as 10,000 tractor trailer loads we're going to have to destroy here whenever that may happen," Curley said. 

"This order here is probably in the range of 700 tractor trailers. So it's a help, but not even 10 per cent of what we're going to have to get rid of. The U.S. market is the big one." 

Curley said before the border was closed on Nov. 21, there had been interest from American companies in bringing in processing potatoes from P.E.I.

"Our local processor, as we understand it, have everything they need, and because of the strong growing year and the quality, as good as it was, there was an opportunity here to move potatoes to the Pacific Northwest," Curley said.

"We did it about 10 or 11 years ago into Pasco, Washington, through the states. So they contacted us and we were asked to help put this together."

Because of the export ban, the Island potatoes will head to Taber, Alta., instead, to a plant owned by Lamb Weston — one of the world's largest processors of frozen french fries, with headquarters in Idaho.

"The only reason we are getting into the western provinces is they went through a drought, and they don't have the potatoes and that's opened up a market," Curley said.

Monaghan Farms sells potatoes that are processed into potato chips, so it has a quality control lab and other equipment to make the Alberta deal possible. 

Curley, along with his son Derek, have started visiting warehouses, talking to growers and bringing back samples for testing. 

He said the potatoes have to meet rigorous standards set by the french fry manufacturer. "The first and foremost thing would be the colour. We will fry them for the colour specs that a french fryer needs," said Curley. 

"We have fryers, and sugar analysis machines, and things for measuring the gravity of the potatoes." 

Curley said the Alberta deal won't help growers who have warehouses full of table stock and seed potatoes, which can't be made into french fries.