ottawacanadas agriculture minister said thursday that she is optimistic about a breakthrough with the biden administration on resuming shipments to the us of fresh potatoes from the province of prince edward island canada in late november suspended all usbound exports of these potatoes over concerns the us department of agriculture raised about the discovery of a potato fungus in the atlantic coast province canadian officials said the suspension was the result of pressure from the us government the biden administration relayed to ottawa it intended to stop imports of fresh potatoes from prince edward island if canada didnt halt the shipments first officials said the fungus known as potato wart isnt harmful to human health but can reduce crop production the islands potato board has said the potato wart was discovered in fields under surveillance by canadian foodinspection officials and any potatoes from those properties were never destined for the us canadian agriculture minister marieclaude bibeau met with us agriculture secretary tom vilsack in washington on thursday and she told the wall street journal shes confident some prince edward island potatoes could be headed back to the us in the next couple of weeks a ban would remain in place for exports of prince edward island seed potatoes which are meant to be replanted for future commercial crops while canadian officials continue their investigation the risks associated with fresh potatoes with the management plan we have put in place incorporating phytosanitary measures is very low very negligible ms bibeau said she said us officials agreed to determine whether it is safe to allow the shipment of fresh prince edward island potatoes starting first to puerto rico and afterward the continental us roughly a quarter of all usbound freshpotato exports from prince edward island end up in puerto rico the minister said ms bibeau said she was told a decision could be made in the next week or two we thought it was a reasonable timeline for him to proceed representatives for mr vilsack and the us department of agriculture didnt respond to a request for comment regarding the bilateral meeting prince edward islandcanadas smallest province with a population of roughly 165000accounted for nearly 30 of all canadian freshpotato exports during the crop year ended july 31 2020 or more than any other single province according to data from the countrys agriculture department the prince edward island potato board estimates that annual shipments to the us total roughly 120 million canadian dollars or the equivalent of us94 million