Canadá: Potato Board brings reward to an end

The general manager of the PEI Potato Board said November 5 police were still checking into some tips and, if none of them lead to an arrest, Greg Donald said the money will be returned to the people who donated it.

He explained the money was always kept in a separate account and donors were told from the outset the money would be returned if the reward was not claimed. The reward, originally set at $50,000, was established in late 2014.

The first case of tampering was discovered last October 3 in potatoes originating from Linkletter Farms that had been sent to Cavendish Farms for processing. Linkletter Farms later asked the Canadian Food Inspection Agency for a voluntary recall after spuds laced with needles were found in bags of tablestock potatoes originating from their farm at stores across the Atlantic region. In late December, Cavendish Farms reported finding more needles from another, as yet unnamed, supplier.

Since mid-May, there were more than 15 incidents of sewing needles or nails showing up in tablestock potatoes throughout the Maritimes, including one at the Montague Superstore. In addition tothe Superstore, suspect potatoes were found at Co-op, Inter Marché, No Frills, Foodland, Dominion and Giant Tiger outlets.

However, Donald said subsequent investigation showed some of those incidents were cases of foreign metal detection rather than tampering and some of them did not involve Island potatoes. The general manager said that was the case with the last incident that occurred in Halifax in September.

"It is certainly disappointing this matter is still hanging over the industry," Donald said.

He said it was never the intention for the reward to continue indefinitely, adding when the reward was increased to half a million dollars, the hope was those responsible could be caught before this year’s harvest began.

"Obviously, that didn’t happen," he said.

Earlier this year , both the federal and provincial governments announced funding to the potato industry to help Island growers deal with the impact of the tampering. The former Conservative government of Stephen Harper pledged an additional $1.5 million to help growers install metal detecting equipment, while the province chipped in an additional $500,000. Both amounts were in addition to the $1.4 million already allocated for the program under a joint Growing Forward 2 project.