Women workers sorting rotten potatoes at a cold storage in Nilphamari. Rainfall during harvesting period damaged a huge quantity of potatoes which later became unfit for preservation. PHOTO: STAR

The leaders of Nilphamari unit of Bangladesh Cold Storage Association (BCSA) said rising power cost, load shedding and voltage fluctuation are threatening their industry.

They demanded immediate exemption of 20 per cent electricity bill like other agro-based industries.

They were talking to journalists of a number of national and local dailies and weeklies at the office of Mukta Cold Storage at Jaldhaka pazila of Nilphamari on Wednesday.

The central committee members of BCSA and other local leaders of the organisation were present.

BCSA central committee member and also managing director of Mukta Cold Storage Ltd Sayed Ali said, frequent load shedding and voltage fluctuation are damaging machines and spares of local cold storages. Narrating his own experience, he said, in the last three months he incurred a loss of Tk 6 lakh as electric motors, scatters and other parts were either burnt or damaged due to voltage fluctuation.

Another leader and director of Shaon Himagar Ltd of Domar upazila, Monsurul Islam Danu said, the Bangladesh Power Development Board (BPDB) can not provide electricity constantly for running the cold storages. Because of this the cold storage authorities have to keep standby power generators which automatically doubles the storage cost.

He pointed out that a cold storage can run only for five hours with the electricity produced by a generator using one barrel of diesel, costing around Tk 4,300 whereas the cost of electricity supplied by BPDB for the same is less than Tk 3,000.

The managing director of Mukta Cold Storage Ltd said the cold storage industry is becoming a losing concern due to frequent use of diesel generators, rising cost of spare parts, high price of ammonia, transportation cost etc. He said that they are maintaining low cost for storage of potato for the greater interest of farmers.

The charge for a bag of potato is still Tk 170- 190 like the previous year. But if the situation does not improve, it may not be possible to maintain the current charges.

The cold storages in Nilphamari preserve potatoes worth about Tk 20 crore and potato seeds of Tk 8-10 crore a year.

Monsurul Islam Danu further said that the farmers would fail to produce potato in the next year if the potato seeds are ruined due to power disruption. In that case the price of potato would also go up and create instability in the food sector.

The cold storage leaders demanded that the cold storage industry, like other agro-based industries, should get 20 per cent exemption in electric bills. They also urged the government to refix the bank interest rate at 9 per cent in place of the current 12 per cent. They further called upon the government to provide loan on easy terms for buying sophisticated diesel generators as load shedding and voltage fluctuation are becoming 'everyday affair.'

Meanwhile, potato is rottening in almost all the cold storages recently of the district due to electricity disruption. During a visit to a number of cold storages it was found that hundreds of potato bags are being taken out of the cold storages and women labourers were sorting the rotten potatoes.

Besides, frequent rainfall during harvesting period damaged a huge quantity of potatoes, raising fear that the price may go up at the end despite a bumper production this year, sources said.