Potatoes at throwaway prices
Tangail growers now worrid about recovery of production costs as unsold potatoes are rotting
A trader in Delduar upazila of Tangail district sleeps on his pile of potato sacks that has remained unsold in absence of customers, right, workers sort relatively better potatoes from a small stock that has started rotting for staying outside the cold storage for days.Photo: STAR
Lack of buyers is forcing the potato growers in Delduar upazila under the district to sell the vegetable at throughway prices as they have to take back the item from cold storages at the expiry of the contract period. The farmers are worried about recovery of their production costs, let alone profit, as the unsold potatoes are rotting only three to four days after bringing it out of the cold storage. Potato growers and traders kept huge quantities of potato at cold storages following its good yield in the upazila last season but most of the product remained unsold throughout the year. "I invested at least Tk 1200 for per sack of potatoes (80kg) including production and transportation costs and cold storage fare but had to sell it for around Tk 500 per sack due to lack of buyers," said Motiar Rahman, a potato grower of Duabail village in Delduar upazila. Bablu Miah, Ramjan Ali, Korban Ali, Talukder Shahed and Jinnah Miah of different villages in the upazila have similar tales to tell. As they have to take back the potatoes from the cold storage due to pressure from the owners at the expiry of the contract period, they have to sell the perishable item for whatever prices are offered. Several potato growers in the upazila said they are now less interested to cultivate the popular vegetable in the next season due to abnormal price fall of the product. Mohammad Russel, owner of the Kazi Cold Storage at Bathuli in the upazila, said capacity of his cold storage is 60,000 sacks while charge for keeping a sack of potato is Tk 300. "The potato yield was good last season and my cold storage was full to its capacity shortly after the harvest. Many potato growers failed to keep their produce at the cold storage due to lack of space," he said. “Although the contract time is over, many of the local potato growers are yet to take back their produce from the cold storage due to lack of buyers,” he added. Mohammad Shah Alam, upazila agriculture officer in Delduar, said farmers cultivated local varieties of potatoes including diamond and katla on 1000 hectares of land in the upazila last year. "They got bumper yield due to favourable weather condition as well as help of local agriculture department. But they are being deprived of fair prices due to lack of facilities to transport the item to other parts of the country,” he said.
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