Potatoes run on a conveyor belt in 2019 at a Lamb Weston processing plant in Hermiston. Ten U.S. senators, including Oregon’s Ron Wyden, wrote a letter April 11, 2024, urging President Joe Biden to push Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to open that nation’s market to U.S. fresh, table-stock potatoes.

1. Letter

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden should urge Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida to open that nation’s market to U.S. fresh, table-stock potatoes, 10 senators urged in an April 11 letter.

The request to resolve the longtime issue was prompted by a visit to the U.S. by Kishida, who on April 11 addressed a joint session of Congress.

The U.S. potato industry is worth more than $100 billion, according to the letter. About 20% of American potatoes are exported, contributing nearly $4.8 billion in economic impact and supporting nearly 34,000 jobs. If Japan opens to U.S. fresh potatoes, annual exports likely will grow by $150 million.

Some 37 members of Congress last May requested assistance from the Biden administration, and little progress has been made, according to the letter. U.S. potato producers “continue to face significant obstacles in gaining access to the market in Japan.”

Fresh potato access to Japan was first requested nearly 30 years ago, and in September 2019 was elevated to a top priority in U.S-Japan plant health negotiations.

Despite the efforts of USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Farming and Fisheries “continues to delay substantive technical discussions on table stock access,” according to the letter.

During the most recent bilateral meetings last September, the ministry “again refused to provide a pest risk assessment to APHIS or any timetable for delivering one.” Japanese officials instead “indicated that they would review individual pests over the next year,” marking “the fifth year of discussions without any forward progress.”

“When they came out from that meeting, it was very clear the Japanese did not agree to any time line” for delivering a finding or advancing the process, said National Potato Council CEO Kam Quarles, who attended the September meeting in Tokyo. Discussions between USDA and Japan occur annually, and “every succeeding year the Japanese have the idea that they are consistent, but they have no updated information.”

Opening the market would produce big economic impacts, according to statements from Potato Council board members.

A long-awaited opening of Japan to U.S. fresh potatoes “will generate additional economic activity and support workers throughout the entire U.S. potato supply chain,” said trade affairs vice president and Washington state grower Ted Tschirky.

Securing market access will help reduce the U.S. agricultural trade deficit, “benefiting American growers and Japanese consumers alike,” said Dean Gibson, an Idaho grower who is the council’s vice president of legislative affairs.

The U.S. potato industry has a strong history of exporting fresh potatoes to many countries safely and routinely, including to Asia, and “there is no valid phytosanitary justification for these delays,” according to the letter to Biden.

“Technical discussions have not made meaningful progress and now is the time to find a solution for U.S. Potato growers,” the letter states.

Senators who signed it included Washington’s Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell, Oregon’s Ron Wyden, and Idaho’s Mike Crapo and Jim Risch.