Cold storage owners question potato output estimates

Bangladesh Cold Storage Association (BCSA) yesterday questioned the estimates of government agencies of potato production reaching record highs this year, claiming it to be much lower. 

Total production will not be more than 85 lakh tonnes although the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE) estimates it to be 1.12 crore tonnes, said the association.

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Record potato production, yet prices going up

Two government agencies, however, said their estimates were correct.

"Cold storage owners are blamed for hikes in potato prices. This is not right," said BCSA President Mostafa Azad Chowdhury at a press conference at its office in Dhaka.

The trade body organised the briefing to share its views regarding hikes in the price of potato, one of the most popular vegetables, over the last two weeks.

Annual demand for the tuber in Bangladesh is around 90 lakh tonnes and there should be a surplus of 22 lakh tonnes if the DAE estimate is taken into account, said the BCSA.

"If potato production had indeed been high, where are these surplus potatoes?" asked Chowdhury, adding that 20 percent of the capacity of cold storages owned by the BSCA members have remained unutilised.

Regarding the price, he said the retail price should not be more than Tk 35 to Tk 36 per kilogramme (kg).

Potato was selling for Tk 42 to Tk 45 per kg in Dhaka's markets yesterday, which is 57 percent higher than that a year ago, according to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.

Estimating stocks in markets to be low, some unscrupulous traders who had stored potatoes intentionally reduced the release of their stocks to artificially hike the price, said Chowdhury.

Replying to a query regarding sharing potato storage data with the commerce ministry, he said, "If the government asks cold storage owners to submit details of the stocks, we must provide it."

Govt Agencies Refute

Tajul Islam Patwary, director general of the DAE, said the BCSA's claim of potato production being lower than that estimated by government agencies was not true.

The DAE and Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS) came up with very close estimates, he said. The BBS estimate is 1.04 crore tonnes.

"Where did they (BCSA) get their figure of 85 lakh tonnes?" he asked.

On the cold storage capacities remaining unutilised, he said not every farmer keeps their potatoes in cold storages and much of the stocks are still in kitchen markets.

"We have conducted our agriculture survey and published it according to the global standard of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) under the United Nation," said Md Matiar Rahman, director general of the BBS.

"From the area selection to output process, we follow the methodology of the FAO to calculate production. Every year, we follow the same method," he said.

Though there is a margin of error, it does not lead to that big of a fluctuation in the figure, he added.