Home ›› 02 Oct 2021 ›› Nation
Potato prices have plunged to as low as Tk 9 per kilogramme (kg) at vegetable wholesale hubs in Kurigram district, bringing sorrow for scores of farmers.
Growers of the district are worried that they might not recover production costs due to a sudden drop in the prices in the ongoing harvesting season.
The production cost of one kg of potato is Tk 17-18, but the sudden price fall forces the growers to sell the vegetable at Tk 9-10 per kg, said Habibur Rahman, a potato grower of Shibram village of Kurigram Sadar upazila.
Of the production cost, the farmers have to pay Tk 4-5 to the cold storage to preserve per kg of their produce and spend Tk 8-10 on growing the vegetable.
“Growers stand to have margins if they get Tk 30 for each kg of potato. This is a total loss for farmers,” Rahman added.
The farmers are blaming the Covid-19 pandemic and simultaneous harvesting in major regions that oversupplied the market for the weakened potato price. In the past, harvesting times were varied, farmhands were available, transportation problems were less, and prices were favourable for farmers.
Farmers have no other option but to harvest now as the quality of potato will start to erode after reaching a certain level of maturity, said Monjurul Haque, deputy director of Kurigram DAE.
He told The Business Post that the growers had produced 1,52,000 tonnes of potato on 6,500 hectares of cropland.
“Growers are storing their produce at the four designated cold storages of the district. They have stored 52,000 tonnes of potato in these cold storages so far,” said the DAE official.
Soleman Ali, a potato trader of Kathalbari Bazar in Kurigram Sadar, told The Business Post that despite the pandemic, the demand and price of potato were high last year as different private and public organisations donated the vegetable as food relief to distressed people and also because of the heightened export rate.
“This year, however, the demand has plunged, and we are not even able to retain the production prices. I have bought a large volume of potatoes, which I am not able to sell,” added the trader.
Goulam Mostafa, owner of Mostafa Cold Storage, and Ranu, owner of Babor Cold Storage, told The Business Post that they still have half of the district’s produce in their storages and have to sell it within only two months.
“If the government does not take measures to export the stored potatoes, we will face a massive loss,” said Ranu.
Another cold storage owner, Sekandar Ali of Sekandar Seed Cold Storage, told The Business Post that of his 2,00,000 sacks of potato, he could only sell 80,000 sacks, and the rest is stored in his cold storage, waiting to become rotten.
Recently, in Bogura, a 30-year-old businessman died from a cardiac arrest after discovering the drastic price fall had caused him a loss of Tk 35 lakh.
Abdul Barik Mandal, a resident of Shibganj union of Barik Mandal upazila, bought 5,000 sacks of potato at Tk 60,00,000 in this season and stored it at Mokamtola RNR Potato Cold Storage.
However, after hearing the news of the sudden price fall – which will decrease the price of his potatoes from Tk 65,00,000 to Tk 15,00,000, creating a loss of more than Tk 35,00,000 – he immediately fell sick and died from a cardiac arrest on Sunday (September 26), said our Bogura correspondent.
Officer-in-Charge of Shibganj Police Station Sirajul Islam confirmed the death. The incident points to the grim reality of potato business and the severity of the situation right now, Sirajul added.
