MODELS of SERVICE  |  Photos  |  Contact Us

The plant opened for operation on January 20, 2014 and ran at or near capacity from then until the end of the potato shipping season.  We operate on several models of service:

MODEL 1: Basic (dry potato pre-processing)
 MODEL 2: Salvage / Rescue
 MODEL 3: Quarantined Potato Processing
 MODEL 4: Metal Detection

Washer and Tumbler cleans potatoes

MODEL 1: Basic (potato pre-processing)

  • Pick up potatoes at the farmer’s warehouse,

  • Truck the potatoes to the plant,

  • Pre-process (*) the potatoes, and

  • Truck them to the end processor, normally Cavendish Farms.

(*) In the pre-processing step the potatoes are tested for gravity and defect concentration, washed and sorted. Potatoes are separated for optimum return to the farmer, with the excellent tubers going on to the shipping truck and the imperfect tubers going through a picking line. Here they are discarded or cut to remove defects and returned to the shipping truck. This process ensures the highest weight loads and higher concentration of the best potatoes for shipping, thereby maximizing the return to the farmer and greatly minimizing dockage for defects.

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MODEL 2: Salvage / Rescue

  • In potato rescue, we pick up highly distressed potatoes, or potatoes with high levels of imperfections such as pitted scab, sugar ends, pink eye, black rot etc. at the farmer’s warehouse. These potatoes are often wet and may have a high concentration of rot and damage.

    • Previously, such potatoes would be destined for cullage, cattle feed or burial. The farmer would not be able to sell them or gain any income from them.

  • These potatoes are sent through the wash line, as in the first model of service. Undamaged potatoes are sent to the truck, and the picking line then salvages any useful tubers though cutting and sorting.

    • In this way, the farmer is in a position to gain some income on this product and minimize the incurred loss.

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MODEL 3: Quarantined Potato Processing

  • In December of 2014, a third model was added to our specialty services when we applied to the CFIA for a Compliance Agreement which would allow us to accept potatoes from regulated fields on PEI and pre-screen them before processing. Regulated fields would include potato wart, potato rot nematode and other issues.

    • Prince Edward Island has some farms which have quarantined potatoes due to either the possibility of disease or having secondary contact with diseased fields or seed.

    • These potatoes are only allowed, by direction of the Canada Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), to be sold for processing and must be handled with the strictest regulation and documentation.

  • PEI Potato Solutions is the only screening facility on PEI with the approvals to handle such product.

  • In this model wash water is sterilized by a controlled high heat application. All soil, rocks and other by-product is sent for deep permanent burial at a designated site.

  • At the end of a regulated article wash run the entire plant goes through a detailed disinfection process.

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Metal Detector control panel

MODEL 4: Metal Detection

  • In summer of 2015, we added a fourth specialty service: a state of the art metal detection system was added to our grading line to ensure potatoes coming through our plant are guaranteed foreign material free for the consumer and processor.

    • The occurrence of foreign material being shipped along with field potatoes, such as golf balls, glass, metal or other objects, has always been an important issue for processors and packers.

    • The discovery in late 2014 and on into 2015 of sewing needles, nails and other metals inserted into tubers has put the industry as a whole on high alert.

  • Farmers who suffered through these attacks were completely shut down and barred from shipping, much like those with disease contamination risk.

  • If not for metal detection units, they would have had to destroy their entire crop.

  • PEI Potato Solutions is proud to provide the PEI potato industry with an affordable and reliable solution to this problem.

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RWL Holdings Incorporated
...is making a real and tangible difference in the agriculture industry for Prince Edward Island farmers and processors every day, contributing to their bottom line.