The Washington State Potato Commission and the Oregon Potato Commission are working cooperatively with the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Washington State Department of Agriculture (WSDA) to create a market in Japan for Washington and Oregon chip potatoes, according to a Jan 3 press release by the WSPC and the OPC. Officials of the two commissions recently returned from Japan with confidence that Japanese trade barriers on Washington, Oregon and US chip potatoes won't be permanent if the two commissions can work through some of the quarantine issues. "Opening up this market for chip potatoes is a long-term strategy. It may take one year or it may take three or five years," according to Will Wise, CEO of the Oregon Potato Commission. "However, we feel the benefits to Oregon and Washington and ultimately all US growers could be tremendous." Press release on http://www.potatoes.com/general/editorial.cfm?Section=media . More information from Bill Wise, Oregon Potato Commission, 503-731-3300 or Pat Boss, Washington State Potato Commission, at pboss@potatoes.com or 509-765-8845

According to a report by Spudman magazine, Canada has turned to NAFTA for help in its dispute with the U.S. to reopen the border to Prince Edward Island potatoes after potato wart was found in a field on the island. Canada's trade and agri-food ministers submitted a joint request January 2 for NAFTA to investigate the U.S. ban on the import of PEI potatoes. The plea to NAFTA takes the dispute into the higher court of an international trade body. Canada has also asked that NAFTA hold consultations with the U.S. within 15 days because the perishable nature of the crop means time is of the essence. Full report on http://www.spudman.com/pages/news01_01/news_nafta.html .

According to a news story on, http://www.canada.com/cgi-bin/cp.asp?f=/news/reuters/stories/20001230/news-canada-usa-potatoes-col.html the United States laid down terms on Friday Dec 29 for dropping its import ban on potatoes from Prince Edward Island. Because of the potential damage to U.S. production, the United States will continue to ban imports from the areas immediately surrounding that field and accept potatoes from the rest of the island only under strict conditions. Potatoes must be washed to remove dirt that may contain residual spores, treated with a sprout inhibitor, shipped in consumer packs of no more than 50 pounds (23 kg) and clearly labeled as a "Product of PEI," the U.S. Agriculture Department said in a letter to Canadian plant health officials. According to the news report, the United States would continue its ban on Prince Edward Island seed potatoes, which are used for planting, the department said.

A Dec 22 press release by the Potato Growers of Idaho (PGI) says Potato Management Company (PMC) officials have scheduled two special meetings to outline their plan for managing the huge potato surplus that exists in the Pacific Northwest. PMC will meet with Idaho growers, shippers and other potato industry representatives a 1 p.m. Wednesday, December 27 at the Shilo Inn, Idaho Falls, and at 2 p.m. on Wednesday January 10 at the Burley Inn, Burley. All industry representatives and the media are welcome to attend. A meeting in the Columbia Basin will be announced very soon. The PMC plan is to purchase the surplus from growers and dispose of it in order to even the supply / demand equation and create a market with positive fundamentals. Full information on Potato Grower reports on the outcome of the meeting on http://www.potatogrower.com/Front_Stories/news-current/news-current.cfm?id=325 and on http://www.potatogrower.com/Front_Stories/news-current/news-current.cfm?id=324 .

This information was taken from http://www.potatonews.com/newsus.htm

IDAHO FALLS Shipping Point Prices as of 02-JAN-2001 Provided by: Fruit and Vegetable Market News, Federal-State Market News Service, USDA. http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/IF_FV130.txt

Potato Seed shipments. http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/WA_FV443.txt

AMS USDA Market Repots http://www.ams.usda.gov/fv/mncs/index.htm

Potato Stocks http://usda.mannlib.cornell.edu/reports/nassr/field/ppo-bb/

2000 acreage "accepted" for seed potato certification – USA http://www.rrtrade.org/mcspga/usacres.htm

2000 total certified seed acres "accepted" - Canadian Provinces http://www.rrtrade.org/mcspga/cdnacres.htm

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