Potato growers from the Philippines eager to learn from P.E.I. industry
CBC
A group from the Philippines has been travelling around Prince Edward Island this week, trying to learn all they can from the P.E.I. potato industry.
The delegation includes members of the United Potato Producers of Benguet Mountain Province Incorporated (UPPBMI), as well as Cheryl Cabellero with the Philippines' Department of Agriculture.
Cabellero said the trip has a couple of goals: to give Filipino farmers an "immersion" with their counterparts on P.E.I., and to explore policies to support the emerging potato industry in the Philippines.
"It's not our staple food, but it is one of the important crops that is being considered in the Philippines as an alternative or complementary, of course, to rice, which is our basic staple," she said.
"The Filipinos love, of course, french fries. So we look forward to more chipping potatoes, as well as developing more marble potatoes for our household consumption."
This is a return trip for one member of the group. Potato farmer Ardan Copas was part of the first delegation from the Philippines to visit Prince Edward Island in 2019.
That year, a private company imported seed potatoes from Prince Edward Island, and growers in the Philippines have been impressed by the results.
"That's why we are here again, because we have some good potato seed here that we can also plant in the Philippines, in our farm," Copas said.
"We get the seedlings from you, 80,000 kilos. and we brought it to the Philippines and it is very adaptable. We get a good production. Our mission is to get seedlings everywhere here."
Copas is one of eight farmers touring the Island this week.
"The farmers are here because they want to see where the seedlings come from. Why is it so very good? And they want to learn ... how they produce here."
Copas grows potatoes in a mountainous area of the Philippines, and on much smaller farms than the ones he's seeing on Prince Edward Island.
"We are very small farms," he said. "We are up in the mountains, so it's 2,900 meters above sea level."
Copas said the goal is to grow more potatoes, and with a population of 190 million Filipinos, there is a lot of potential.
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