Unscrupulous traders buying potatoes at Tk15 a kg, but selling at Tk50: Report

A group of dishonest traders are artificially inflating the price of potatoes and destabilising the market, said the Department of Agricultural Marketing after an investigation into the sudden price hike of the daily commodity.

Potatoes are selling for Tk15 a kg at the farmer level but unscrupulous traders are selling the produce at Tk50 in the retail market, says a report from the government agency.

The price of potatoes suddenly increased from Tk35 to Tk45-50 a kg over the last one week.

The report was recently submitted to the Ministry of Agriculture, with recommendations to stabilise the potato market.

A similar crisis in the potato market was observed in the country in 2020-21. Apart from potatoes, the price of green chilli is still high in the market but has started to fall slowly with the import of the item.

According to the report, the production cost of potatoes this year was around Tk10.50 a kg. Hence, the price should not be more than Tk32 in the retail market. A group of unscrupulous traders are, however, intentionally increasing the price.

In addition, the owners of cold storages have also been held responsible for this because they are releasing an insufficient quantity of potatoes in the market compared to demand, the report says.

In this regard, the President of the Cold Storage Association and Senior Vice President of FBCCI, Mostofa Azad Chowdhury Babu, told TBS, "Those who have stocked potatoes are supplying fewer potatoes than the demand in the market. Potatoes are being sold at Tk30-31 per kg from the cold storage, whereas they are earning up to Tk12-13 per kg. This is the reason for the instability in the market."

He also said the current stock of potatoes is enough for adequate market supply till December and the price should not increase. But if the market remains volatile, then there is no option other than import.

As in every other year, potatoes began to appear in the country's market in February. Some potatoes come directly from the farmers to the market. Farmers store some potatoes and the rest is stored in the cold storage.

Around 24.92 lakh tonnes of potatoes have been stored in 365 cold storages this year, notes the report. After the farmers ran out of their potato stocks, cold storages started supplying them in June. But the report highlighted the fact that this supply is not being done properly.

The production of potatoes this year was around 1.11 crore tonnes but the local demand is 89.92 lakh tonnes. According to the report, potato prices have been increasing for the last 15 days despite overproduction of 21.99 lakh tonnes.

However, the Bangladesh Cold Storage Association said the information given by the government about potato production this year is not correct. Potato production was around 20-22% less than the official estimate. Last year all the cold storages were full but this year there are 10-20% fewer potatoes. The potatoes which stay in the hands of the farmer till June were finished in April.

On 10 July, potatoes were sold at Tk30-33 per kg at the wholesale level and Tk45-50 at the retail level, which is about 10% higher than a month ago and 54.55% higher than in the same period last year. 

But the report says that the price should not be more than Tk24 a kg at the wholesale level.

According to the report, 2.69 lakh tonnes of potatoes were released from cold storage in the first week of July and 89.19% of the stored potatoes are still in storage.

The Department of Agricultural Marketing has made several recommendations in its report for market regulation by releasing potatoes from cold storages as per demand. It said adequate transport facilities should be ensured to maintain a regular supply of potatoes. Ferries and toll plazas should ensure priority passage of potato-carrying vehicles.

Along with this, the report also recommended that unscrupulous traders who are trying to destabilise the potato market should be regulated through various regulatory agencies and police administration.

Mojibur Rahman, a senior officer in the Department of Agricultural Marketing, told The Business Standard, "From the head office of the department, a letter has been sent to all officials involved in monitoring at the divisional, district and upazila levels to take necessary measures in this regard quickly."