Sonia H Moni

Bangladesh Cold Storage Association (BCSA) president has said the middle beneficiary group is trying to force the government to import potato before Ramadan although there are sufficient stocks of potato in the country.

President of the association Major (Retd) Jasim Uddin said a total of 18, 00,000 tonnes of potato were stored in 293 cold storages this year. Of this quantity, around 2,00,000 tonnes were sold and 4,00,000 tonnes would be preserved as seed potato.

He thinks 12,00,000 tonnes of potato are enough to fulfil the local demand in Ramadan and until November as the monthly demand is 2,00,000 tonnes.

He said the farmers sell potato at Tk 18-19 per kg at cold storage level. It is sold in the market at Tk 19-20 per kg at wholesale level. But because of the manipulation of middle beneficiary group the potato price reaches Tk 23-24 per kg at retail level.



He has assured that the current price of potato will remain unchanged until Ramadan as they have enough stock.

He said by capitalising on the price of potato a dishonest business group is trying to force the government to import potato from the neighbouring country. If the government imports potato India will be benefited and potato farmers will be losers. As a result potatoes stored in cold storages will remain unsold and at the end of the year these will get rotten.

He recommended that potato farmers and businessmen should put on sale potatoes in market so that the potato market could be stabilised and reasonable price ensured.

He said that he held discussions with the commerce minister, the finance minister and the agriculture secretary several times. He was able to make them understand that because of unfavourable weather and high cost of seeds, fertiliser and insecticide potato production had declined but the production cost was high, he claimed.

He said, "earlier we gave slogan 'eat more potato and put less pressure on rice' but because of high production cost now we have to give slogan 'eat rice more and put less pressure on potato'".

Meanwhile, another FE Report adds: The government will allow potato import, if cold-storage owners make windfall profit, Commerce Minister Muhammad Faruk Khan said Thursday.

The vegetable item was selling at Tk 23 to 24 in different markets of the city, the minister said.

"The estimated cost of one kg potato at the cold storage level is Tk 17 to 18, so at the retail level the difference is Tk 5 to 6," he said after talks with Bhutanese ambassador Dasho Bap Kesang, who called on the former to invite him to sign Bangladesh-Bhutan trade agreement.

If the price goes up, the government would import the item to keep the market stable, the minister said. "The government is also determined to ensure fair prices to farmers," he added.

There was a bumper harvest of potato last year, but the farmers did not get fair prices, he said.

"The agreement will cover 74 items including food staff and readymade garments," he said.

Mr Faruk Khan said letters of credit to import 25,000 tonnes of edible oil would be opened by next week and the commodities would reach the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) warehouse by the first week of August.

TCB will start selling necessary commodities in the second week of August to keep the prices stable during the upcoming holy month of Ramadan, he said.

"The corporation will appoint 1,200 dealers throughout the country to distribute edible oil, pulse and sugar at fair rates," he added.

The minister said the TCB would also import gram, onion and other consumer products in the second phase.

The TCB will import soyabean and palm oil of 12,500 tonnes each and the wholesale price of soyabean oil will be Tk 71.50 per kg and palm oil Tk 64.11 per kg. Soyabean oil worth Tk 703 million will be imported from Brazil and palm oil worth Tk 626 million from Malaysia.