Scotland could follow Canadian seed potato route for farming

The ‘Canadian concession’ could offer a route for Scottish and UK seed potato exporters to resume at least some of the trade lost with Europe in the wake of Brexit, a conference heard this week.
Seed potatoesSeed potatoes
Seed potatoes

While repeated negotiations over the resumption of seed potato exports from the UK to the EU has made little headway, a leading civil servant told delegates there was another avenue to be explored.

Professor Gerry Saddler, Scotland’s chief plant health officer, told Scottish Agronomy’s annual conference in Perth that an arrangement which allows limited amounts of Canadian seed potatoes into the EU could form a template for a Scottish deal.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

“The Canadian concession only covers certain varieties, mostly from Prince Edward Island destined for southern EU countries,” Saddler told the conference. “But it is perhaps something we could exploit in terms of being able to resume exports to the EU and Northern Ireland.”

However, he revealed that it would be next year at the earliest before any head way was made.

The alternative, he said, would be to come to an arrangement such as Switzerland had with the EU. But he added that such an approach would have to be centred around dynamic alignment of regulations and that was something UK negotiators were unwilling to consider as the alignment would stretch far beyond the potato sector.

With the winding down of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s activities in the potato sector following the result of last year’s producer levy poll, Saddler hinted that following discussions between the four UK administrations “certain vital services” could receive interim government funding.

He suggested that the key areas to receive support might include a continuation of the Fight Against Blight programme, aphid monitoring and applications for emergency or off-label approval of pesticides.

“There would be major problems if these services were to stop by the end of March,” he warned - but stressed that any Government funding would only be short term.

“The industry has to sort this out for itself in the long term, “said Saddler.

Questioned as to whether the recently announced soil sampling scheme for Scotland would include Potato Cyst Nematode (PCN), Prof Saddler thought it unlikely. The scheme which will offer up to £30 per hectare for sampling on Region 1 land was still at the design stage but would likely concentrate on nutrient content and organic matter content.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

*The growth in the use of refrigerated stores saw almost two-thirds of the UK’s 3.1 million tonnes of ware potatoes stored on farms and at merchants last year receive no post-harvest treatments - while the vast majority of the remaining thirds was treated with a plant-based product.

Highlighting the biggest change in potato storage since tecnazene lost approval in the early 2000s, new figures released this week by the Office of National Statistics showed that the phasing out of the sprout suppressant chlorpropham had seen spearmint oil chosen as the main alternative sprout suppressant.

Comments

 0 comments

Want to join the conversation? Please or to comment on this article.