Canadian potato crop to fall short of processing market needs

Potato processors that rely on Canadian-grown spuds are facing a shortage.

Poor harvest weather conditions have resulted in 15,000 acres — about 4 percent — of Canada’s potato crop being abandoned, reported The Western Producer.

“This has been a very difficult harvest in almost all provinces in Canada,” Kevin MacIsaac, general manager of United Potato Growers of Canada, said in an email to media and industry leaders. “Approximately 15,000 acres in the country had to be abandoned which will have implications for our supply this marketing season.”

Nearly half of the abandoned acreage was on Prince Edward Island, where unseasonably cold temperatures and above-average precipitation disrupted the fall harvest. Prince Edward Island is Canada’s top potato-producing province.

Canada is the fourth-largest exporter of processed potatoes in the world and the seventh-largest exporter of unprocessed spuds.