Quarles Hopeful Potato Announcement Will Hold

Last week, Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that an agreement had been reached to allow U.S. potatoes into the Mexican market no later than May 15^th. National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles said while the news is good, no one is holding their breathe right now.

“Obviously, we’d rather hear positive news than negative. We’d just, given that this is a 25-year trade dispute with a heck of a lot of twists and turns, we’re going to have to see exports actually moving before we start to feel comfortable in this.”

He added he wants to see a lot of movement on the part of Mexico between now and the middle of next month.

“It may be a number of months if not years before we truly know that this market is open because our competitors have, even though some of their options may be coming more limited, their interest in keeping us out of their market, I don’t think that’s declined at all.”

Quarles hopes an inspection of a U.S. facility later this month will be the final hurdle they need to clear and that no last-minute obstacles occur.

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