Photo : Collected
Potatoes imported from India are being stored along with the local ones in some cold storages in Rajshahi. This is happening amid rising potato prices in the Rajshahi markets. In Saheb Bazar, the biggest kitchen market in the city, the price of red potato has risen to Tk 60 per kg. A few days ago, it was sold at Tk 35 per kg.
Local sources at the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) said potato was grown on 35,000 hectares of land in Rajshahi this season, down from 36,500 hectares last year.
Last year, one million tonnes of potato were produced. This time, the target was nine lakh tonnes. But due to less production, one-fourth of the capacity of several cold storages remains unfilled. That gap is being met with potatoes imported from India.
At the Himalay cold storage in Baya area of Paba upazila, it was recently seen that red plastic bags containing Indian potato were all over the shed in front of the facility. The labels of the bags read Burdwan, India. Workers were bringing out the potatoes from Indian sacks and putting those in local jute sacks. The sacks were then taken inside.
Harun Ur Rashid, manager of the cold storage who was supervising the task, said Rajshahi saw less production of potato this time compared to the previous season.
“Potatoes were small because of the late October rains. A quarter of our cold storage is empty. Importers are importing potato from India, and we got some from there. We are keeping that here,” he said.
He also said two other cold storages in the district were storing Indian potato. A potato grower in Tanore said the quality of Rajshahi potato is very good and there is great demand for it across the country. He said cold storage owners do not want to keep their freezers empty and are filling those with relatively low-quality Indian potato.
“When prices will increase further later, they will sell Indian potatoes by mixing those with the local ones. This will confuse consumers about the Rajshahi potato quality while traders will benefit more than farmers,” he said.
He also said traders would import potato from India at low prices and sell here at high prices. “The government did not allow potato imports to fill the cold storages.”
Meanwhile, officials of DAE Rajshahi do not have information about the storage of imported potato. Umme Salma, a training officer, said, “We heard about storing potatoes for the first time and will find out more.”
When asked whether imported potato can be stockpiled for market control, she said she does not know about that.
Rajshahi Additional Deputy Commissioner Kalyan Chowdhury also said he is unaware of importing and storing Indian potato.
General Secretary of Consumers Association of Bangladesh’s Rajshahi unit Golam Mostafa said the purpose of potato import is to control the market.
He said the government may have decided to import potato due to high prices.
“Imported potatoes are supposed to be supplied directly to the market so that prices are under control. These potatoes cannot be stored in any way,” he said.
Mostafa further said action needs to be taken against hoarders based on specific complaints.
Messenger/Fameema
