Despite adequate production of potatoes, the price of the vegetable is alarmingly high in the market as the cold storage owners are not releasing potatoes to meet the local demand to make extra profit, wholesalers claimed.
Department of Agriculture Marketing statistics shows that about 11.9 million tonnes of potato have been produced this year. The annual demand is about 7.7 million tonnes. As such, there should be a surplus of about 3 million tonnes of potato. Although some amount of potatoesare exported, there is no possibility of shortage.
Tradersat different stages involved with potato business are blaming each other over the ongoing crisis of potatoes and its soaring price in the country.
Cold storage owners are saying they have insufficient potatoes at their storage while wholesalers said they are not getting enough potatoes from cold storage.
Executive Member of Bangladesh Cold Storage Association (BCSA) Asif Jashim told Bangladesh Post, “There is a lack of potatoes at our cold storage. In a season (From March to October), our storages become full with potatoes, but this year out of six chamber storage, two-chamber remain empty”.
When asked about the shortage, he said, “As the potatoes price went down drastically for the last couple of years, farmers are cultivating certain crops instead of potatoes that bring more profit to their pockets.”
However, potatoes wholesalers said that big traders have stored thousands of tonnes of potatoes in cold storage with the hope of making more profit. The potato-centric crisis has intensified and these potatoes are being gradually released from the cold storage at higher prices. Against the demand of 100 tonnes of potatoes, 10 tonnes are coming in the market. As a result, unscrupulous potato traders are trying to destabilize the market by creating a crisis of 90 tonnes.
Several allegations of the wholesalers and retailers can be considered as valid asMushiganj cold storages are now full of potatoes, sources said.
Sarwar Hossain, Manager of Sonar Bangla Cold Storage at Mirkadim inMunshiganj told media, “We have stored some 200 maunds of potato last week. The same scenario can be seen at other cold storages as well.”
However, BCSA Secretary MozammelHoque Chowdhury told Bangladesh Post, “As the government has fixed the potato price again, we are happy with it. We have already written to cold storage owners and government officials regarding our activities to bring stability to the potato market.”
At the same time he urged the government to increase market vigilance to refrain businessmen or syndicate from destabilisingthe market again.
Meanwhile to stabilise the potato price, besides oil, sugar, pulses, and onions, Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) has started selling potatoes at fair prices in the open market in the country. Every person can purchase the highest two kgs of potato at Tk 25 per kg.
In a recent press conference on World Food Day, 2020 Agriculture Minister Dr. AbdurRazzak said, “Potato traders are currently making an extra profit of at least Tk 20 per kg, although it was fixed at Tk 30 per kg at the retail level. However, the government is working to control the price of potatoes.”
