No impact of import, potato prices remain all-time high
Staff Reporter :
Beginning of potato import hardly could make any impact on the market as the price of the item unabatedly remained higher retailed at an all-time high Tk 60-85 a kg in the groceries.
The government has so issued permits to import 1.2 lakh tonnes of potato while 200 tonnes entered the country by the mean time, according to the Plant Quarantine Wing under the agriculture ministry.
The stored diamante and cardinal varieties retailed at Tk 60-70 a kilogram on the day while red-coloured round potato (carrage) was sold at Tk 80-85 a kg.
Traders’ excessive profit-making tendency, confusing government data on production, and lack of market regulation have made the kitchen market most volatile, with potatoes and onions breaking records, said experts.
According to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), the previous record was made in 2020 when stored potatoes hit Tk 55-65 a kg in Dhaka.
The government has, however, permitted potato import to bridle the buck. The Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) has given import permit (IP) to bring 1.2 lakh tonnes of potatoes, officials said.
The TCB recorded a 30-40-percent hike in prices in a week, and the current price is 109 per cent higher than last year’s.
The agriculture ministry, despite its acclamation of a 20 lakh tonne surplus production, gave the import permits. Agriculture Minister Dr Muhammad Abdur Razzaque said cold-storage owners and their allied traders hoarded potatoes and raised prices “at their sweet will” and to rein in prices, the government approved import.
Bangladesh Cold Storage Association President Mostafa Azad Babu said storage owners hardly stored 4.0 per cent of potatoes which they revealed to the commerce ministry, the MoA and law-enforcement agencies much earlier.
He said the MoA data showed 25 lakh tonnes of potato stored in the country’s cold storages in March-April period.
The MoA data showed with production of 11 million tonnes, and exporters sending 32,000 tonnes, farmers and traders should have above 8.0 million tonnes of potatoes.
He said, “November is the crucial month for cold-storage owners and traders who try to clear out the cold storage to prepare for next season’s trade.”
He urged the MoA to provide authentic data of production in time which only could minimise problems.
The association leader claimed traders could hardly import potato amid a rising cost in the globe as well as the hardship of sourcing US dollar.
Farm economist Prof Dr Rashidul Hasan holds both the government and the traders responsible for such hikes in prices.
He said, “The government failed to give proper data on production while traders raise prices at will amid lack of monitoring and rational punishment.”
However, the agriculture ministry has a target to produce 11 million tonnes of potato this fiscal year.
Prof Dr Rashidul Hasan expressed his concern that the target could unlikely to be achieved amid an untimely rain in September which caused a delay in sowing preparation as well as rocketing prices of seed potato which could discourage many farmers in cultivation.
