Written question asked by Roger Williams (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 6 July 2005, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 11 July 2005. It was answered by Ben Bradshaw (Labour) on Thursday, 21 July 2005 on behalf of the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs.

Potato Ring Rot

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what assessment she has made of whether all the potatoes identified as being infected with ring rot in this country were processed in the same grading station in Holland.

Answer: [holding answer 11 July 2005]: A revised final potato ring rot report was published on 26 April this year which included new information arising from investigations by the Netherlands Plant Protection Service suggesting there may have been cross contamination of a number of stocks at a Dutch processing facility between December 2002 and March 2003. As the report explains, previous generations of the stocks from which infected potatoes in the UK outbreaks derived were processed at the facility concerned during the period in question, as were four stocks of different varieties which resulted in outbreaks in the Netherlands in 2004. Despite this common link, the resulting investigation in the Netherlands, which included enhanced testing of remaining stocks, has not identified the original source of infection, The report is available at http://www.defra.gov.uk/planth/ring/repfinal.htm.

Secondary information