P.E.I. Potato Board courts Algerian industry leaders

The P.E.I. Potato Board is wooing an old friend in an effort to create new business opportunities for Island farmers.

The board is hosting a delegation of industry leaders from Algeria.

The Algerian delegation is in the province now. They are planning to tour the Potato Quality Institute, Harrington Research Farm and the Elite Seed Farm in Fox Island, near Alberton.

Up until the mid-1990s, P.E.I. shipped millions of pounds of potatoes to the African country. That peaked in 1994 when the Island shipped more than 200 million pounds of table and seed potatoes.

But improved potato production in Europe, which is geographically closer, and increased shipping costs caused P.E.I. to fall out of favour with Algeria.

In 2007, only eight million pounds of potatoes were shipped to Algeria and since then it’s almost non-existent.

But Greg Donald, general manager of the P.E.I. Potato Board, is confident the relationship between the two jurisdictions can be rekindled.