February 2019 - 23

more, " Porter said. " Obviously,
economics have to stack out, though. "
The biggest potato and fry market
" A lot of people are saying 'I'm just not
for the UK is Ireland, and Ireland's
biggest potato market is the UK. That
is, of course, for different products,
and taking into account the location of
chip processors. The border issues there
could be significant, Porter said.
" You
couldn't
operate
a
no-deal
Brexit in Ireland because there are so
many crossing points, " he said.
Porter also expects issues to arise for
seed potato exporters. Each year, the
UK exports about 100,000 tons of seed.
About 60 percent of that goes to Egypt
and Morocco, trade that is conducted
through EU deals with the two countries.
" So that needs to be sorted out
too, " Porter said. " There needs to be a
reciprocal deal there. "
In the event of a no-deal Brexit, the
UK has agreed to take EU seed, but the
EU hasn't agreed to take UK seed.
" British seed growers are concerned
because they don't know what's going to
happen to those markets, " said Porter,
who pointed out that most of the 2019
sales would be done by the time Brexit
is finalized at the end of March.
One of the big issues for farmers
facing the referendum was the EU's
control over policies related to the
use of technology, such as pesticides
and genetically modified and geneedited
technology.
While
some
felt
that more access would be
allowed following Brexit, Porter said
possibilities may be limited.
" The original deal that Theresa
May talked about was having a sort of
common rulebook, so basically the rules
and regulations would be the same
between the two (states), so you could
trade freely between them, " Porter said.
" I think that's been watered down a bit,
so there would be opportunity to have
slightly different regulations. "
British potato growers aren't likely
to grow GMO potatoes, though, said
Porter, since their largest market, the
EU, doesn't allow imports. Having to
segregate potatoes - both in-field and
in storage - may influence decisionmaking,
as well, he added.
" A lot of people are saying 'I'm just
not going to grow GMOs because then I
can access any market,' " he said.
There is still opposition to GMO in
the UK, much the same as there is in the
EU. " So it would take quite a long time
to break that down and get acceptance, "
he said.
The EU recently decided not to
accept gene-edited products either.
" There's a lot of people in the EU who
wonder why they did that. That's just a
daft decision, " Porter said. " That's the
sort of stuff that makes people anti-EU. "
It's particularly frustrating for Brits,
since the Innate technology was
actually developed in the UK, he said.
" For me, as a taxpayer, my money went
to developing something we could
never use. So we're paying for it and
then exporting all the value out of it. "
OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS
While there's much focus on Brexit's
uncertainty, it's not all doom and gloom.
In fact, the UK's exit from the European
Union could even spell opportunity.
There is, for instance, room to increase
British potato production, and there's
definitely room for a processor to set up
shop in the UK.
" There are some opportunities, but
there's an awful lot of short-term pain for
not a lot of discernable gain, " he said.
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Edmonton Potato Growers, 12220 - 170 Street, Edmonton, AB T5V 1L7
Spudman * February 2019
23
going to grow GMOs because then I can access
any market.' "
- Cedric Porter, editor of World Potato Markets and
Brexit Food & Farming
February 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2019
