FREDERICTON. N.B. – A Canadian potato farmer has been detained in Lebanon.
Farmer Henk Tepper of Tobique Farms in New Brunswick has been arrested upon entry to the country that sits on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea.
He was accompanying a potato shipment to Lebanon, but was stopped when arriving in the capital city of Beirut on March 23.
He has been held by Lebanese officials since then.
"He has not been arrested, he has been detained," Harmeine Dionne, Tepper’s sister and a schoolteacher in Grand Falls, N.B., said this week.
"We don’t know what the complications are.
"All that we know is that when he arrived in Lebanon, and this was a business trip through Potatoes Canada, that when they swiped his passport a red flag came up and they detained him."
Tobique Farms started out as a small 28-hectare family farm roughly 30 years ago, but has grown into a larger international enterprise selling seed, table and other potatoes around the globe.
The farm, run by Henk Tepper and his father Berend Tepper, now encompasses roughly 1,200 hectares.
It originally sold all of its supply to McCain Foods Canada, before deciding to go abroad in 1989 with its first international sales to the Cuban and eastern market.
"We do know that he is in Lebanon and that his return is being worked on by high levels of government departments to try to get him home," said Joe Brennan, chairman of Potatoes New Brunswick.
"We do hope that he returns safely."
Brennan said New Brunswick exports a small quantity of seed potatoes to Lebanon, but declined to comment further, labelling the incident "very sensitive."
Lisa Monette, a spokeswoman for Federal Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, acknowledged earlier this week that a Canadian was being detained in Lebanon.
"Consular officials in Ottawa and at the Canadian Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon, are working with local authorities and are providing consular assistance," Monette said. "Consular officials are in regular contact with the family in Canada.
"Due to Privacy Act considerations, we are unable to provide further information."
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