National Potato Council Urges Reinstatement of Prince Edward Island Potato Import Ban Following Additional Disease Detection

May 18, 2026

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Rapid action encouraged to protect 714,000 U.S. jobs dependent on healthy secure U.S. potato industry 

The National Potato Council (NPC), alongside 13 U.S. state potato organizations, today formally requested the U.S. Department of Agriculture to immediately reinstate a previous ban on fresh potato imports from Prince Edward Island (PEI), Canada. The demand follows a newly confirmed detection of Potato Wart disease in a previously unregulated PEI field.

In a May 18 letter sent to USDA Undersecretary for Marketing and Regulatory Services Dudley Hoskins, the group stated that this new detection exposes severe vulnerabilities in current border protections and proves that the disease spreads beyond known containment zones.

“Given that this new detection has occurred in an entirely new field without any association with previous finds, it reinforces our continued concerns over the true scope of the disease in PEI production areas,” wrote Kam Quarles, Chief Executive Officer of the National Potato Council. “Therefore, we renew our strong objection to allowing imports of fresh potatoes from PEI into the U.S.”

A Potentially Catastrophic Threat to American Agriculture
Potato Wart is an aggressive, soil-borne pathogen that deforms potatoes and destroys crop yields. The industry noted that the threat is far from theoretical; the disease previously devastated Newfoundland, Canada, rendering potato production in that province impossible. 

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) currently classifies Potato Wart as a select agent – one of only seven high-consequence plant pathogens listed as severe threats to domestic agriculture. According to data from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the fungus can survive in soil for more than 40 years, and no chemical treatments exist to control or eradicate it.

An introduction of potato wart into the United States would trigger devastating economic consequences for domestic family farms. The U.S. potato industry generates more than $100 billion in annual economic activity and supports over 714,000 jobs. A domestic outbreak would prompt an immediate loss of access to all international fresh potato markets, costing American growers over $225 million in direct annual export losses and billions more in indirect economic damage. 

A History of Permissive Policy
The U.S. potato industry has continued to raise the issue with USDA, expressing frustration with the lack of common-sense mitigation efforts to prevent the spread of Potato Wart from PEI to U.S. production areas. 

Following a temporary import halt in the fall of 2021, the Biden Administration reopened the border to PEI fresh potato imports in May 2022. In response, the NPC Board of Directors passed a formal resolution noting that federal officials treated the phytosanitary crisis as a “diplomatic inconvenience” rather than a genuine biological threat. 

Despite an October 2022 APHIS pathway analysis warning that “the full extent of the potato wart infestation in PEI is still unknown but is likely to be larger than currently reported,” subsequent mitigation protocols remained largely unchanged. 

NPC previously expressed concerns over the effectiveness of Canada’s 2024 National Potato Wart Survey. The industry noted that it evaluated a very small sample size of only 2,200 fields and entirely skipped testing in fields with previous detections. 

Ignored Safeguards Require Decisive Action
For years, NPC and the U.S. potato industry urged APHIS to utilize its authority to implement common-sense risk-mitigation measures. The industry previously recommended: 

  • Restricting bulk potato shipments into the United States.
  • Limiting large retail shipments and mandating strict traceback labeling on consumer packages.
  • Imposing stringent controls on agricultural waste generated by processing and bulk handling facilities. 

Federal authorities have not yet acted on any of these recommendations. The group points out that if the roles were reversed, Canada would never tolerate such a permissive standard from the United States regarding a threat of this magnitude.

“Given the disease progression on PEI, coupled with the lack of enhanced phytosanitary actions to date, we strongly urge you to suspend PEI’s ability to ship fresh potatoes into the United States,” the letter concludes.

State Signatories:

The full letter is available here.

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