Canada: Prince Edward Island farmers face future without McCain Foods

Potato farmers across P.E.I. are busy planting this year’s crop, but those who used to sell to McCain Foods have the added worry of wondering where next year’s crop will be heading. When McCain Foods closed its only processing facility on P.E.I., it committed to keep buying potatoes from its contracted growers here for another two seasons. Farmers are responsible for trucking their product to processing facilities, but McCain Foods subsidized the transportation of the raw P.E.I. product to processing facilities in Florenceville and Grand Falls, N.B. for those two years. The move was intended to help cushion the blow to farmers who had contracts to sell to the Albany plant and who were caught by surprise when it closed suddenly. But that cushion ends when the 2016 crop that’s going into the ground now is harvested and sold. More