Home ›› 29 Jan 2022 ›› Front
Cold storage owners are planning to hike charges for potatoes by Tk 40 – Tk 50 from March this year – ahead of the upcoming season.
Storage owners of Munshiganj, Cumilla and Chandpur districts made the decision at a meeting organised by the Bangladesh Cold Storage Association (BCSA) on January 24 in the capital’s Dhaka Club, insiders told The Business Post.
Potato farmers are currently paying Tk 200 – Tk 210 per sack as cold storage fee, but after implementation of the storage charge hike, they will have to pay around Tk 250 per sack – which holds 50 kgs of the tuber.
BCSA sources cited the increase in labour costs, electricity bills and mobil price hike as primary reasons behind this decision, and added that they plan to implement this move across the country.
Insiders further said the cold storage charges may exceed Tk 250 as there are talks that the price of electricity is going up further.
Speaking to The Business Post, BCSA President Mosharraf Hossain said, “We are financed by the banks, and we provide loans to farmers and merchants for bringing potatoes to the storage facilities.
“Moreover, we have been witnessing an unhealthy competition among the cold storage owners as some are charging relatively less for storing potatoes. The whole sector is incurring losses due to lower rents. This time we are going to fix the same rent for every cold storage.”
Bangladesh produced 10.9 million tonnes of potato in 2021, and of them, around 2 million are surplus. Cold storages now hold unsold potatoes produced in the last year.
Due to the surplus, farmers had to sell their produce at prices lower than the production cost. The cold storage gate price of potatoes produced last year is around Tk 2 per kg. Currently, per Kg of new season potato is being sold at Tk 10 – Tk 12 in cold storage gates across the country.
Prices of the tuber range between Tk16 – Tk 20 in the retail market.
Aslam Dhaly, a farmer residing in Munshiganj’s Tangibari Upajila, planted Potatoes on 14 acres of land. He has to store around 4,000 maunds of potato in cold storage.
He said, “Last year, the production cost per kg of potato was Tk 16 – Tk 17. This year, it will reach Tk 20 as the rain destroyed the crop on around two acres of land. I also had to use more fertiliser for re-plantation.
“I did not get migrated labourers due to rain, who come each year in the planting season. For this reason, we had to go in for a late plantation this year. I had to employ local laborers who charge more. Each labourer took Tk 600 every day as wage.”
Aslam added, “Under such circumstances, a rent increase in cold storages will cause us more losses next season, which could discourage farmers from cultivating this tuber.”
BCSA President Mosharraf Hossain said, “The government is providing a 60 per cent subsidy on fertilisers. Moreover, the farmers are investing their savings in the field, but they are suffering losses after not getting a fair price.
“So government should buy surplus potatoes, and add the tuber to the list of relief goods.”
He added, “No businessman wants to suffer losses. So farmers are suffering from low prices only due to the government’s negligence. Buying 20 lakh tonnes of potato is not a big deal for the government to save both farmers and cold storage owners and largely the potato sector.”
