Export market for Wisconsin certified seed potatoes – Audio
Amy Charkowski, Wisconsin Certified Seed Potato Program
Department of Plant Pathology
UW-Madison College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
acharkowski@wisc.edu
(608) 262-7911
3:01 Total Time
0:19 – Standardized certification helps export market
0:55 – Who buys seed potatoes
1:13 – Why buy seed potatoes here
1:42 – Challenges to exporting seed potatoes
2:27 – Why choose Wisconsin potatoes
2:51 – Lead out
TRANSCRIPT
The international market for certified seed potatoes. We’re visiting today with Amy Charkowski, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Madison, Wisconsin, and I’m Sevie Kenyon.
Sevie Kenyon: To be able to sell certified seed in an international market, what things changed?
Amy Charkowski: When an international buyer comes to the U.S., they want to learn what certification means here, and make sure that we’re certifying for diseases and pests that they consider to be important. With the new agreement that’s in place now, we have a single system that they have to learn that goes across the whole United States, so now they know when they import seed from Colorado or Wisconsin or Maine or Michigan they know the standard that they’re going to receive. And that’s what’s changed: it’s made it much easier for farmers to market their seed and it’s made it easier for the importing country to understand what they’re getting.
Sevie Kenyon: Well tell us a little bit about this international market.
Amy Charkowski: Brazil, for example, has a lot of potential. Thailand is a place that Wisconsin farmers have exported to and has a lot of potential. There’s some Asian countries, like Sri Lanka and India that are possibilities, islands in the Caribbean that are possibilities.
Sevie Kenyon: Why wouldn’t a country like Brazil develop its own certified seed program?
Amy Charkowski: So a lot of the countries that are looking to import seed are countries that are tropical or semi-tropical and don’t have cold winters. If you look at where seed potatoes are grown in the U.S., it’s mainly the tier of states right along the northern border. A lot of insect pests and diseases are killed over the winter, so we have a much lower insect and disease pressure here. For that reason we are able to grow higher quality seed potatoes.
Sevie Kenyon: What are some of the challenges to selling seed potatoes internationally?
Amy Charkowski: There are numerous challenges. You have to identify the customer or the customer has to identify you. There’s trust that has to be developed between the buyer and seller. You have to figure out how to ship potatoes long distances- it’s not a trivial thing, because they must be kept cool. They’re large and bulky. You’re basically shipping water in a way. And potatoes are living things, so if they’re abused, by the time they reach the customer they’re no good. The seller has to be confident that the person buying the potatoes will pay him or her. That can be a challenge as well, so I think Wisconsin seeds are very high quality. We have a great product to sell, but it’ll take some time before these markets are really developed.
Sevie Kenyon: What might cause an international buyer to buy seed potatoes in Wisconsin?
Amy Charkowski: I’m a little biased here, but we’ve had a certification program in place for a hundred years, it’s been tied with the University so we’re able to take the latest research, use it to help the farmers produce a high quality crop. For the past century, Wisconsin farmers have had very, very high quality seed potatoes. We have lower disease pressure than a lot of places. We have very well educated farmers who do a great job. They really aren’t going to find a better product much of anywhere else.
Sevie Kenyon: We’ve been visiting with Amy Charkowski, Department of Plant Pathology, University of Wisconsin in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Madison, Wisconsin, and I am Sevie Kenyon.