The Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) on Thursday announced an agreement with Mexico’s national service for agri-food health, safety and quality (SENASICA) to allow shipments to Mexico of Canadian potatoes for consumption or processing.

CFIA said it will “work closely with the potato sector in the coming months as next steps are implemented.”

WHY IT MATTERS: Almost 93 per cent of Canada’s fresh potato exports by dollar value in the 2024-25 marketing year were to the U.S. alone.

Canada’s potato exports to Mexico today are almost entirely in frozen potato products. According to Statistics Canada export data for 2024-25, Canada shipped about 55,526 tonnes of frozen potatoes, valued at about C$77.7 million, to Mexico.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service (USDA/FAS) says Canada that year held about a 34 per cent share of Mexico’s total imports of frozen potatoes, compared to a 52 per cent share for the U.S. and 14 per cent for Belgium.

Meanwhile, citing information from Trade Data Monitor (TDM), FAS says the U.S. has been “Mexico’s sole supplier of fresh potato imports” in recent years. In the 2023-24 marketing year, those imports came in at 204,165 tonnes.

The bulk of Mexico’s potato consumption is supplied by its domestic growers, who produced about 2.12 million tonnes in 2024.

A 2025 FAS report on the Mexican potato market said its consumers favour the domestically-grown Alpha potato variety, and “the dominance of domestically produced potatoes in the Mexican market, accounting for 91 per cent of domestic consumption, limits awareness of other potato options among Mexican households.”

FAS noted Mexico requires any fresh potato imports to be packaged in 20-pound bags or smaller, adding that Mexican consumers prefer to hand-select produce and buy relatively smaller quantities more frequently.

Imported fresh potatoes in Mexico, FAS said, today go primarily instead to “restaurants seeking to offer differentiated premium products to their customers.”

Mexico’s new move to allow Canadian fresh potatoes follows a trade mission last October by Canada’s federal agriculture minister Heath MacDonald, during which the two countries “agreed to enhance regulatory and technical co-operation” under a 2025-2028 action plan.

Those talks continued during another trade mission to Mexico last month, led by Dominic LeBlanc, minister for Canada-U.S. trade, CFIA said Thursday. MacDonald also took part in that mission, according to Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada.

The 2025-2028 action plan called for the two countries to make progress on a sanitary and phytosanitary work plan to improve market access for agricultural products for both countries’ consumers and processors, and on mutual recognition of electronic certification for plant, animal, aquaculture and fishing products.

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It’s always blamed on excessive nitrogen causing excessive growth. Many growers in such wet seasons try various growth regulators, often with little or no effect, hoping to prevent crop lodging.

Let’s get to the real reason why wheat lodges in wet or rainy seasons.

Soils most prone to wheat lodging in wet seasons are:

• sandy,
• sandy/loam,
• sandy/high organic matter,
• heavy in cattle manure applications, and/or
• silt soils along old river courses.

What do these soils have in common? They’re usually very low in available copper in the top six to eight inches, often of the order of 0.2 to 0.5 parts per million (ppm).

Testing, treating for soil copper

Potato growers favour sandy, silty soils. They’re the best soil types for clean, mud-free potato production.

What do potato growers do when they rent such sandy fields from neighbouring grain growers? They perform extensive soil tests — not only for macronutrients, but for micronutrients as well. They may add several pounds of manganese, zinc, copper and boron if necessary per acre. If copper levels are low (below one ppm) in sandy soils, potato growers will add three pounds of copper (12 pounds of bluestone) per acre to bring the copper level up to two ppm.

What happens when farmers plant a wheat crop following potatoes in the rotation? They usually brag about the big jump in wheat yield. They ascribe the yield increase to leftover nitrogen or phosphate from the potato crop. I do not agree.

I live in an area of many potato growers and lots of sandy cropland. I am pretty convinced the jump in the wheat yield following a potato crop is due to copper. To further prove my point, I will show what happened to two adjacent wheat quarters I followed in 2025 on the east and west side of Range Road 272 to the west of Edmonton.

I selected two fields sown to wheat. Both were sandy loam soil types seeded in late April. Both fields looked good in June and were headed out in early July. During late June, July and early August, the wheat field areas got around one inch of rain almost once a week, to a total of eight or more inches. All crops in the area looked good. In sandy soil, an inch of rain may move eight to 10 inches down, but not much deeper.

The field to the west had grown potatoes the year previously. The field to the east, to my knowledge, had never grown potatoes. By late August, the west field looked to be in excellent shape. I estimated an 80-plus bushel crop of possibly No. 1 or No. 2 wheat.

The field to the east, meanwhile, was very badly lodged and the crop itself was perhaps 10 days to two weeks behind in maturity. My simple diagnosis is that the field to the west had adequate soil copper reserves, whereas the soil to the east was copper-starved or deficient.

Copper’s function in production

There’s also the matter of disease. In the same wet weather, lodging can be accompanied by significant ergot infection of the grain heads, particularly in wheat and sometimes in barley.

Copper is essential for pollen fertility and for ergot prevention.

Two — yes, two — copper-based enzymes are needed for lignin biosynthesis that results in stem strength. Lignin is the “rod” that holds up the wheat stem, according to Horst Marschner’s book, Mineral Nutrition of Higher Plants.

Farmers have been removing crops from Prairie cropland for 100 to 150 years or more. As they deplete macronutrients, such as nitrogen, phosphate, potash and sulphur, they have soil tested and replaced them. What about the micronutrients every crop or cow also removes? Production draws down on micronutrient reserves. Can farmers accept that, in many soil types, their copper or perhaps zinc or manganese is critically low?

Minnesota potato grower recommendations state that for soils not in vegetable production within two years or where micronutrients are known to be low, farmers should put down five pounds an acre of manganese, three of zinc, four of iron, three of copper and 1.5 of boron.

“Use soil testing to monitor micronutrient status every two years to avoid micronutrient toxicity, because some micronutrients can build up in the soil,” the resource warns.

Now that you know you have been draining on-soil micronutrient reserves in grams per year as you harvest your crops, you must replace these missing reserves.

Most unfarmed sandy soils have one to two pounds of copper available in the top six inches of soil per acre and about two to three pounds of zinc. A 60-bushel crop of wheat will remove up to half an ounce of copper. How many cereal crops can you take off your cropland before you deplete your micronutrient reserves in your topsoil?

Livestock’s leavings and lodging

A common way to lodge a cereal crop is to place 15 to 25 tons of cattle manure onto sandy soil in particular. What usually happens, and I have heard it repeated many times, is that the cereal crop — especially wheat — has taken up too much nitrogen. I disagree.

The carbon:nitrogen ratio of such manure is about 30:1. Wheat straw is about 80:1. Thus, when manure is applied to cropland, it has a severe deficiency of nitrogen.

What really happens is that cropland soil per gram or ounce has billions of microorganisms such as fungi and bacteria. These microorganisms seize on the limited nitrogen, as well as other nutrients in the soil (potassium, phosphorus and sulphur) and including micronutrients such as boron, copper, zinc and manganese. The real cause of the lodging is the fact that the micronutrients take up the limited soil copper, depriving the wheat plants. Copper enzymes being essential for wheat stem strength, the result is crop lodging.

If you manure sandy soil, in particular, and your soil copper level is below 0.5 ppm, you must add copper to prevent lodging at around five lb. an acre (20 pounds of bluestone) and up your nitrogen (depending on existing soil nitrogen) by 60 to 100 pounds per acre.

I examined a sandy field of wheat in the Camrose, Alta., area that went 20 bushels an acre after a very heavy application of manure. The next year, the farmer applied, with a Valmar spreader, about four pounds of copper per acre (16 pounds of bluestone), drilled in some 60 pounds of nitrogen and seeded again to wheat. With the added copper and nitrogen, the field went 70 bushels an acre of No. 2 wheat.

Cereal growers must think like potato growers. Give the crop the optimum macro- and micronutrients in order to get an optimum target yield for your area.

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Average income for families operating a single farm in Canada grew by 0.9 per cent to $216,021 in 2023 compared to 2021. However, this was driven by higher off-farm income — namely through investment and pension revenue.

Average net operating income fell by 0.6 per cent.

Farm family income is published every two years, StatCan said.

Highlights of the report include:

• Families operating potato farms saw the largest increase at 25.5 per cent growth since 2021. Poultry and egg farmers came in second with 8.6 per cent growth.
• Families operating pig farms saw the largest decline in income — a 21.9 per cent decline between 2021 and 2023. Greenhouse, nursery and floriculture farm families saw a 17.2 per cent decline in average income.
• Average off-farm income increased by 2.2 per cent to $116,788. Off-farm income accounted for 54.1 per cent of total farm income in 2023.
• Prairie farm families earned the highest average total income in Canada, led by Saskatchewan at $264,991 in 2023, Manitoba ($247,707) and Alberta ($242,130)

Farm average net operating income jumped in 2023 by 17 per cent over 2022, according to Agriculture Agri-Food Canada data. The net operating income tracks producers’ revenue minus cash expenses at the farm level. High livestock receipts, driven by strong cattle markets, bolstered the total. Crop prices were also strong for most of the year.

Conditions were less favourable for hog farmers.

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This is the last of its informal seed modernization consultations before it publishes draft amendments to seed regulations the agency said in a news release. The process of modernizing Canada’s seed regulations has been ongoing since 2020 — since 2019 for the potato sector.

Up for feedback are a series of proposed changes to seed potatoes and Part 2 and 3 of the Seeds regulation. The proposals fit into three categories:

• Reduce red tape
• Support the well-being of the industry
• Protect farmers, consumers, markets and the environment

Feedback on the costs and benefits of the proposed policy decisions is also welcome, the CFIA said.

The online consultations are open to any interested parties, including industry members and the general public. They close Feb. 5.

The agency said it will report results of the consultation early in 2026. It will then seek targeted input from stakeholders before publishing draft regulatory amendments in the Canada Gazette.

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The potato’s arrival in Europe was the result of war and oppression. Spanish conquistadores had claimed numerous plants and animals as part of the Columbian Exchange, the unequal exchange of goods, disease, slavery, land theft and genocide between New World and Old that began in 1492 and culminated in 1650. The colonizers brought with them the devastation of fatal illnesses — among them smallpox, measles, tuberculosis, and cholera, and diphtheria — that ran rampant among North America’s First Nations; sugar, rice, cotton and tobacco imported into and from the Americas became the economic basis of North and South American societies built on enslavement. Half a world away, European cooks and diners benefitted without any pangs of conscience, gaining tomatoes, potatoes, corn, vanilla, cacao, turkey and the Muscovy duck, among other edibles.

The potato was introduced to Ireland in the late 1500s, possibly by Sir Walter Raleigh, but more likely by Basque fishermen. The Irish people adopted the potato more quickly and more widely than any other European country. By the 1830s, it was a staple for the country’s rapidly growing population, and public records show that young men of the era would live on five kilograms of spuds a day.

But Irish farmers didn’t diversify potato breeds for genetic (and culinary) variation; they monocropped, depending on only one species, a waxy, coarse potato variety known as “lumper.” In late fall 1845, Phytophthora infestans, or potato blight, arrived from England and Europe, turning fields sown with lumpers into beds of inedible slime as the potatoes rotted. During the ensuing national famine in 1845-1852, over a million, or one in eight, Irish residents died of hunger. Another million emigrated, mostly to North America, bringing with them their enduring fondness for the spud.

Several branches of my paternal family, the Smiths, Cooks and Cleavers, were Scots who had settled in Ulster in Northern Ireland. They arrived in Upper Canada (now Ontario) in the 1800s, possibly before or during the Irish famine. My father’s undying love of daily potatoes surely had its roots in the Irish potato beds. After his passing six years ago, my mother, who cooked most of the family’s meals for decades, announced that if she never ate another spud it would be too soon. However, she never turns down my potato-leek soup, double-stuffed bakers, cheesy scalloped spuds, lemony oregano-dusted Greek potatoes, latkes with apple sauce, pommes Anna, spud and turnip mash or the favourite shown here. So first we eat, gratefully, and share, then we can trade our family histories and potato recipes.

Butter-basted baby potatoes with rosemary

Choose baby-sized spuds and an ovenproof casserole.

Serves 2-4.

• 2 Tbsp. butter
• 1 ½ lb. small potatoes
• 2-3 sprigs rosemary
• salt and pepper to taste
• chives or green onions, minced, for garnish
• sour cream, Greek yogurt or crème fraiche for garnish

Preheat oven to 375 F. Melt the butter in the casserole and add the potatoes. Roll them to coat thoroughly, then top with rosemary sprigs and salt. Cover snugly and roast until tender, about 40 minutes, tossing several times.

Raise the oven temperature to 425 F and uncover the potatoes, then roast for another 20 minutes, tossing again, until lightly browned. Season with pepper and serve with garnishes if desired.

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Isolated showers had minimal impact on harvesting operations as 78 per cent of the province’s crops are now off the ground, an 18-point increase from a week earlier. This was compared to the five-year average of 69.8 per cent and the 10-year average of 56.2 per cent.

The south region led the way at 84.3 per cent, followed by the northwest at 80.1 per cent, the Peace region at 77.6 per cent, the northeast at 76.8 per cent and the central region at 71.5 per cent.

The winter wheat, dry pea, fall rye and lentil harvests are complete, while durum was 92.3 per cent done. The spring wheat harvest was at 88.8 per cent, while the barley harvest was at 87.4 per cent, followed by mustard at 84.9 per cent and oats at 82.1 per cent. The chickpea harvest was 71.1 per cent complete, compared to the canola harvest at 55.9 per cent, the potato harvest at 52.5 per cent and flax at 35.4 per cent.

Average crop yields were 76.2 bushels per acre for oats, 72.6 for barley, 54.6 for spring wheat, 46.8 for dry peas and 42.1 for canola. Except for dry peas, all estimated yields increased from the previous week.

Surface soil moisture in Alberta was measured at 34.1 per cent poor, 40.8 per cent fair, 23.2 per cent good and 1.9 per cent excellent. The five-year average was 45 per cent good to excellent. Sub-surface soil moisture was at 28 per cent good to excellent, down three points from last week.

Provincial pasture growth was rated at 28 per cent good to excellent, down four points from the previous report. This was below the five-year average of 32 per cent.

Fall-seeded crops were rated 40 per cent good to excellent, below the five-year average of 57 per cent. Provincial dryland hay yields were estimated at 1.3 tons per acre for the first cut and one ton per acre for the second cut, indicating that current dryland hay yields are in line with long-term averages. Provincial irrigated hay yields were only reported for the South Region and were estimated at 2.5 tons per acre for the first cut and 2.3 tons per acre for the second cut.

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A new analysis of 450 genomes from cultivated potatoes and 56 genomes of wild potato species has revealed that the potato lineage originated through natural interbreeding between a wild tomato plant and a potato-like species in South America about 9 million years ago.

This hybridization event led to the appearance of the nascent potato plant’s tuber, an enlarged structure housing nutrients underground, according to the researchers, who also identified two crucial genes involved in tuber formation. Whereas in a tomato plant the edible part is the fruit, in the potato plant it is the tuber.

“Potatoes are truly one of humanity’s most remarkable food staples, combining extraordinary versatility, nutritional value and cultural ubiquity in ways few crops can match,” said Sanwen Huang, a genome biologist and plant breeder at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences and senior author of the study published on Friday in the journal Cell.

“People eat potatoes using virtually every cooking method – baking, roasting, boiling, steaming and frying. Despite being stereotyped as carbohydrates, potatoes offer vitamin C, potassium, fiber and resistant starch, and are naturally gluten-free, low-fat and satiating – a nutrient-dense calorie source,” Huang added.

Resistant starch is a type of carbohydrate that resists digestion in the small intestine and ferments in the large intestine, feeding beneficial bacteria in the gut.

Etuberosum to Solanum tuberosum

The modern-day potato plant’s scientific name is Solanum tuberosum. Its two parents identified in the study were plants that were the ancestors of a potato-like species now found in Peru named Etuberosum, which closely resembles the potato plant but lacks a tuber, and the tomato plant.

These two plants themselves shared a common ancestor that lived about 14 million years ago, and were able to naturally interbreed when the fortuitous hybridization event occurred five million years after they had diverged from each other.

“This event led to a reshuffling of genes such that the new lineage produced tubers, allowing these plants to expand into the newly created cold, dry habitats in the rising Andes mountain chain,” said botanist Sandra Knapp of the Natural History Museum in London, a co-author of the study.

This hybridization event coincided with the rapid uplift of the Andes. With a tuber, the potato plant was able to adapt to the changing regional environment and thrive in the harsh conditions of the mountains.

“Tubers can store nutrients for cold adaptation, and enable asexual reproduction to meet the challenge of the reduced fertility in cold conditions. These allowed the plant to survive and rapidly expand,” Huang said.

Study may improve potato breeding

The study’s findings, according to the researchers, may help guide improved cultivated potato breeding to address environmental challenges that crops presently face due to factors such as climate change.

There currently are roughly 5,000 potato varieties. The potato is the world’s third most important food crop, after rice and wheat, for human consumption, according to the Peru-based International Potato Center research organization. China is the world’s leading potato producer.

“It always is hard to remove all the deleterious mutations in potato genomes in breeding, and this study opens a new door to make a potato free of deleterious mutations using the tomato as the chassis of synthetic biology,” Huang said.

The study also may open the door to generate a new crop species that could produce tomato fruit above ground and potato tubers below ground, according to Zhiyang Zhang, a postdoctoral researcher at the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences.

The potato and tomato are members of the nightshade family of flowering plants that also includes tobacco and peppers, among others. The study did not investigate the evolutionary origins of other tuberous root crops that originated in South America such as the sweet potato and yuca, which are members of different families of flowering plants.

While the parts of the tomato and potato plants that people eat are quite different, the plants themselves are very similar.

“We use different parts of these two species, fruits in tomatoes and tubers in potatoes,” Knapp said. “If you look at the flowers or leaves, these are very similar. And if you are lucky enough to let your potato plant produce fruits, they look just like little green tomatoes. But don’t eat them. They are not very nice.”

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Nevertheless, crop conditions improved across the province according to its weekly crop report released on July 18.

The percentage of crops rated in good to excellent condition improved five points from two weeks earlier at 66 per cent. The central region had the best rating at 87.4 per cent, followed by the northwest at 80.4 per cent. The northeast region was rated at 67.8 per cent, while the south had 60.5 per cent and the dry Peace region trailed every other area at 27.6 per cent. The south region was unchanged from two weeks earlier, while every other region improved.

The five-year provincial average was 61.6 per cent while the 10-year average was 62.9 per cent. The Peace region is the only one below its five- and 10-year averages.

Potatoes were the best rated crop by far at 99.1 per cent. Mixed grains (84.8 per cent) and flax (72.4 per cent) were the only other crops rated 70 per cent good to excellent or higher. Crops in the worst condition were chickpeas (55.6 per cent), durum (59.1 per cent) and winter wheat (59.9 per cent). Spring wheat was rated at 67 per cent while canola was at 64.4 per cent.

Crops were developing ahead of schedule, with spring cereals nearing full flowering, compared to the historical average of late head emergence. Approximately 74 per cent of broadleaf crops were in the flowering stage and 20 per cent have begun podding. Spring cereals in the Peace region were in the early milk development stage, while crops in the south region were in early heading to mid-flowering. Crops in all regions were developing quicker than usual. Gophers were detected in a small fraction of fields in the south, central and northwest regions.

Despite rainfall in some areas, surface soil moisture declined provincewide by three points from last week at 53 per cent good to excellent. The five-year average was 57.4 per cent while the 10-year average was 57.5 per cent. The central region had the most moisture at 81.3 per cent while the Peace region was at 31.2 per cent. The northwest and northeast regions showed heavy declines at 19 points (to 44 per cent) and 18 points (to 38 per cent), respectively.

Sub-surface moisture levels were unchanged at 47 per cent, below the five-year (51 per cent) and 10-year (53 per cent) averages, respectively. The central region rated the highest at 70 per cent while the south and Peace regions were at 37 per cent.

Pasture conditions in Alberta improved four points from last week at 48 per cent good to excellent, but still below the five- and 10-year averages. The best rating was in the central region at 71 per cent while the worst was in the Peace region at 23 per cent.

Dryland tame hay was 66 per cent baled as of July 15, well ahead of historical averages, while yields totaled 1.2 tonnes per acre on average. Growth conditions were 40.3 per cent good to excellent in Alberta. The central region was at 64.6 per cent while the Peace region was at 19.4 per cent.

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Mumbai | Reuters — U.S. and India trade negotiators were pushing on Wednesday to finalize a tariff-reducing deal ahead of President Donald Trump’s July 9 negotiating deadline, but disagreements over U.S. dairy and agriculture remained unresolved.

Which products is U.S. lobbying for?

The United States is pressing India to open its markets to a wide range of American products, including dairy, poultry, corn, soybeans, rice, wheat, ethanol, citrus fruits, almonds, pecans, apples, grapes, canned peaches, chocolates, cookies, and frozen French fries. While India is willing to grant greater access to U.S. dry fruits and apples, it is holding back on allowing imports of corn, soybeans, wheat, and dairy products.

India does not allow genetically modified (GM) food crops, while most U.S. corn and soybean production is GM-based.

Dairy remains a sensitive issue in India, where cultural and dietary preferences strongly influence food choices. Indian consumers are particularly concerned that cattle in the U.S. are often fed with animal by-products, a practice that conflicts with Indian food habits.

Why are farm goods imports sensitive?

Agriculture and its allied areas contribute just 16 per cent to India’s US$3.9 trillion economy, but sustain nearly half of the country’s 1.4 billion population. As farmers remain the most powerful voting bloc, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government was forced into a rare retreat four years ago when it tried to push through controversial farm laws.

The prospect of cheaper imports from the United States threatens to drive down local prices, handing the opposition a fresh opportunity to attack the government. New Delhi has traditionally kept agriculture out of trade agreements with other nations. Granting market access to the U.S. could force India to extend similar concessions to other trading partners.

How do Indian and U.S. farms compare?

The average Indian farm comprises just 1.08 hectares (2.67 acres), compared to 187 hectares (462.1 acres) in the United States. In dairy, the average herd size in India is two to three animals per farmer, compared to hundreds in the United States.

This difference makes it difficult for small Indian farmers to compete with their U.S. counterparts.

Farming in India remains largely unmechanized because small, fragmented land holdings leave little room for large machinery. In many regions, farmers rely on techniques passed down through generations, a sharp contrast to U.S. farms, where cutting-edge equipment and AI-driven technologies have raised productivity.

Why does India oppose U.S. ethanol for blending with gasoline?

A key aim of India’s Ethanol Blended Petrol (EBP) program is to cut dependence on energy imports by blending domestically-produced ethanol with gasoline. Significant investments by domestic companies mean that India is now close to achieving its ambitious target of blending 20 per cent ethanol. Importing ethanol would undermine those companies.

The EBP also helps manage surpluses of rice, sugarcane, and corn by diverting them to ethanol production. Allowing imports of U.S. ethanol would be a serious setback for India’s emerging distillery sector.

— Reporting by Rajendra Jadhav

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Agriculture minister RJ Sigurdson was on hand on at Farming Smarter’s two-day field school to announce a one-time capital grant of $3.2 million to Alberta’s 12 applied research associations (ARAs).

It will allow them to focus on research into the adoption of new technology and practices.

ARAs are regional, non-profit organizations that conduct research and extension activities tailored to the specific needs of producers in their respective areas.

“The associations can extend the life of their facility’s infrastructure and equipment and reduce their operating costs,” said Sigurdson.

“The funding is intended to support agricultural research and improve competitiveness. Agricultural research in Alberta leads to tangible benefits for farmers that include higher profits and ample food supply at an affordable cost for consumers.”

Sigurdson said Canada is only one of five net-exporting countries in the world. The minister referred to Alberta and Saskatchewan as the bread basket feeding the world.

“Estimates are the global food demand will rise anywhere from 65 to 85 per cent by mid century. More and more countries are going to continue to look towards our provinces to feed the world, and research is going to be key to continuing to support our farmers and ranchers in the incredible work they do every year.”

Farming Smarter used its part of the capital grant to purchase a tractor to expand its capacity for irrigated crop research, specifically in potato agronomy. Alberta has surpassed Prince Edward Island as the country’s largest potato producer.

The province exported $930 million in processed potatoes in 2024, Sigurdson said.

“Alberta is an agricultural powerhouse. They proudly produce about one-fifth of Canada’s ag exports. With potato production contributing billions per year to Alberta’s economy, applied research associations play a vital role in supporting farmers and ranchers with top-notch research that helps producers improve and advance agriculture in Alberta,” he said.

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