Potato imports resume amid higher domestic prices

Importers have again taken to bringing over potatoes through Dinajpur's Hili Land Port after nearly one and a half months as prices had started to rise, though local harvests are about to end.

Around 170 tonnes were imported last Sunday and Monday, said port officials. It cost around Tk 22 per kilogramme (kg), said Harun-ur-Rashid, president of a local association of importers and exporters.

This has led to the price of each kg to drop by Tk 3 to Tk 4 at Dinajpur.

Last week the Holland and Granola varieties were selling at Tk 30 to Tk 35 while the Romano variety at over Tk 40.

At wholesale, a kg of Holland variety is now being sold at Tk 27, said Atiqul Islam, a retailer of a Rail Bazar kitchen market.

Prices had peaked to as much as Tk 70 to Tk 80 at the end of last year, prompting the government to start encouraging imports. Around 42 importers obtained permission to import around 34,000 tonnes at the end of January this year.

After the import of a couple of a thousand tonnes, importers stopped bringing it over from January 31 as prices started to drop locally, said the port officials.

It came down to Tk 20 to 25 in early February and stayed at that level before rising by Tk 10 per kg in early March, prompting the recent imports.

However, around 90 percent of harvests have already been made and will be completed in mid-April, according to the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

The target for the eight districts under Rangpur division is to produce 42.47 lakh tonnes while at least 172,589 hectares of land have been brought under cultivation.

Imtiaz Alam, a farmer of Sheikhpura union of Dinajpur sadar upazila, said he had made an "adequate" profit from 12 acres of land, even after losing 10 percent of the produce for adverse weather.

Khademul Islam, a grower of Sadarpur village, made a profit of Tk 4 lakh spending Tk 3 lakh on 5 bighas of land this season whereas he had incurred a loss of Tk 1 lakh on cultivating 4 bighas of land last year.

Out of 300 bags of his produce, each of 76 kg, he has kept 55 in cold storages for sale during lean periods.

Potatoes now being kept in cold storages can be preserved till December. A lot of the imported and harvested potatoes are being preserved in this manner.

There are around 102 cold storages in Rangpur with capacity to store over 10 lakh tonnes of potatoes, according to the DAE.