Prince Edward Island (P.E.I.) is helping Ukraine rebuild its economy by sharing its expertise in a field it is known for around the world — growing potatoes. Razom Invest Canada, a P.E.I.-based company headed by former Malpeque MP Wayne Easter, began teaching Ukrainians how to plant and harvest potatoes on a large scale last year, as Shane Ross is reporting for CBC News.
Easter said the idea came about in 2022 at a Rebuild Ukraine conference in Toronto. “The prime minister of Ukraine spoke there and he said this: He said the economic front is as important as the military front in terms of Ukraine’s future, and businesses and Canadian investors need to be in Ukraine now.”
“They imported something like 40 per cent of their potatoes from Belarus, and they’re not on good terms [with] Belarus at the moment, so that’s opened up some opportunity,” Easter said in an interview with Island Morning host Mitch Cormier.
Easter said they couldn’t use P.E.I. seeds because of the ongoing export restrictions imposed by the Canadian Food and Inspection Agency. So they were forced to buy their seed from Scotland. It yielded a crop “equivalent to one of the better crops on Prince Edward Island”.
Source: CBC News. Read the full story here
Photo: The potatoes being grown in Ukraine are helping fill a gap created by a break in relations with its former supplier nation, Belarus. Credit Wayne Easter/CBC
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