Just in time for the Christmas season, potato farmers in Prince Edward Island are getting access to the lucrative United States market – but they're not entirely happy.

A ban on spuds from P.E.I. has been lifted six weeks after the border was closed.

On Oct. 31, the United States banned the potatoes when the fungus was found in an isolated field.

Now, the border has reopened for table potatoes, but not for seed stock. And more importantly for the farmers in P.E.I., about one-eighth of the province is under quarantine.

A zone of about 40,000 hectares around the field where the disease was found is off limits.

Prince Edward Island exports about 10 per cent of its potatoes to the U.S. A long-term loss of that market was about to spell trouble for farmers already contending with low prices.

Farmers estimate they lost millions of dollars during the ban.

Potato wart is a fungal disease that causes ugly deformities in potatoes and makes them unmarketable.

• FROM OCT. 31, 2000: P.E.I. potatoes banned in U.S.
• FROM NOV. 1, 2000: P.E.I. tries to lift U.S. ban on its potatoes
• FROM DEC. 5, 2000: Murphy demands trade retaliation

Farmers and P.E.I. agriculture officials are disappointed with the quarantine, but are happy at least to be able to ship their potatoes south.

Some, including P.E.I. Agriculture Minister Mitch Murphy and MP Wayne Easter want Ottawa to retaliate for the ban with trade sanctions.