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Even after the government has rescheduled the price of potatoes, potatoes are not being sold at that fixed price anywhere in the country, including the capital. The Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB), the government's own marketing agency, said in its daily market price report on Friday (October 23, 2020) that potatoes are still being sold at Tk 40 to 45 per kg. As such, it is still being sold at Tk 5 to 10 per kg more than the retail price fixed by the Department of Agricultural Marketing. Not only that, there are allegations that potatoes are not being sold in the cold storages at the price fixed by the government.
So in whose interest was the potato price re-determined? From the pre-determined rate - or why move? These questions now belong to those concerned.
Mohammad Yusuf, director general of the Department of Agricultural Marketing, told reporters that potato growers and traders have not received a price for potatoes for the past few years. This time the price has gone up due to demand. And most of the potatoes kept in the cold storage belong to the farmers. Therefore, considering the interests of the farmers, they have moved away from the previously fixed price. Potato prices have been increased.
But how much marginal farmers are benefiting from this extra price of potatoes. Or do they have any potatoes in the cold storage at all? According to the concerned, there is no potato to be sold as food for marginal farmers in the cold storage. All you have is a potato. Because marginal farmers are so poor that they cultivate on credit. As a result, he was forced to sell the new potatoes as soon as they emerged. Cold storage owners and traders buy these potatoes and store them in cold storage.
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Munshiganj district has the highest potato production in the country. This time in this district 13 lakh 27 thousand 27 metric tons of potato has been produced in about 37 thousand hectares of land. Most of these potatoes stored in 66 cold storages in Munshiganj are owned by traders. Munshiganj Muktarpur Riverview Cold Storage Manager Mohammad Rezaul Karim said that 150,000 sacks of potatoes were stored in this cold storage. Already 1 lakh 2 thousand sacks of potatoes have been sold. At present there are 48,000 sacks of potatoes in stock. The farmer has 20,000 bags of seed potatoes. The remaining 28,000 sacks of trader’s potatoes.
According to the Department of Agricultural Marketing, the cost per kg of potato production is Tk 8.32. During the season, the purchase price, cold storage rent and all other expenses together cost Tk 18.99 per kg of potatoes at the cold storage gate. First, on October 7, the price of potatoes was fixed at Tk 23 with a profit of Tk 4 per kg at the cold storage level. About 21 percent profit as a percentage. But cold storage owners and middlemen are not happy with the profits. They again met the Department of Agricultural Marketing on October 20 and re-fixed the price of potatoes at the cold storage level. This time the price of potato was fixed at Tk 27 per kg at the cold storage level. That means four rupees more per kg than the previous fixed rate. As a result, their total profit is eight rupees per kg. As a percentage which is 42 percent. Even if only the next scheduled additional profit is taken into account, the traders are manipulating Tk 400 crore at the cold storage level alone. This calculation has been done after calculating the profit of 1 million tons of potatoes only after fixing the price.
It is to be noted that although 1 crore 9 lakh tonnes of potatoes were produced last season, the cold storage owners said that 4 million tonnes of potatoes have been stored in the cold storages. Of this, 55 per cent potatoes have been taken out of cold storages before pricing. In other words, 18 lakh tons of potatoes were still in the cold storage. Of this, 8 lakh tonnes are excluded as seed potatoes but there are 10 lakh tonnes more.
As such, a class of traders is grabbing an additional Tk 500 crore at the wholesale level as per the newly fixed price. Similarly, retailers are also embezzling an additional Tk 1,000 crore. All in all, this syndicate is taking several thousand crores of Tk from potatoes.
In this context, the Minister of Agriculture Dr. Mohammad Abdur Razzak told, that traders and cold storage owners are taking advantage of the increased demand for potatoes this year. He said that now marginal farmers do not have potatoes in their hands. Low-income people and workers have suffered a lot due to the increase in potato prices, he said. Replying to a question, the agriculture minister said traders have to sell potatoes at the rate fixed by the government.
Source: Online/SZK
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