Low potato prices leave traders, farmers in a quandary

Potato farmers and traders have been left bewildered by a drastic fall in potato prices this year as many of them had packed their produce into cold storages to sell during the rainy season, when most crops die of flooding and before the arrival of winter crops, in order to maximise profits.

But on the contrary, they are on the verge of incurring huge losses.

Considering the situation, the farmers and traders are not withdrawing their stocks in hopes of getting better prices in the near future since there are only two months left before the spuds expire at the end of October.

"Last year, 50,000 sacks of potato that weighed 60 kilogrammes (kgs) each were withdrawn by the end of August but this year, the amount is just 14,000," said Shafi Hyder, manager of Angkur Seed and Himagar, a cold storage facility in Nilphamari district of Rangpur division.

Hyder's cold storage accommodated two lakh sacks of potato this year, of which one lakh sacks were set aside for consumption during the rainy season, the peak selling season, but the rate of withdrawal has been very low.

According to traders, it costs about Tk 17 per kg to preserve potatoes in cold storages, including the purchase price, cold storage charge, transport, sack, and labour cost. However, the selling rate is just around Tk 10 at the cold storage gate while it is Tk 15 at the retail level.

Rafiqul Islam, a potato trader who preserved 10,000 bags of the tuber crop in the Mukta Himagar cold storage in Nilphamari's Jaldhaka uplazila and Ankur Seed and Himagar, now fears a shocking loss due to the low prices.

"I'll incur losses if I sell the potato now since I will likely get just Tk 8 per kg, constituting a total loss of about Tk 43 lakh," he said.

Traders Nur Islam Akand,  Asad Mia and Ratan Master, who preserved  4,000  sacks, 3,000 sacks and 2,500 sacks respectively, echoed the same.

The Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) in Nilphamari said that there are a total of 10 cold storages in the district that can collectively house 86,000 tonnes of potato.

A record 4.90 lakh tonnes of potato were produced this year on about 22 hectares of land, it added.

Abu Bakkar Siddiquee, deputy director of the DAE, said since floods did not occur this year, most vegetable fields were left intact and provided satisfactory yields.

However, these crops were not transported to other districts on a large scale due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, which ultimately caused potato prices to fall," said Farhanul Islam, vice president of the Nilphamari Chamber of Commerce and Industries.

"Setting up agro-based industries for the multiple uses of potato and boosting its export could effectively combat the potato price fall," he added.