Price rider in potato export plan.

Calcutta, Aug. 25: The Bengal government today told potato traders they would be allowed to export 700 tonnes to other states daily provided they sold the tuber to the state at Rs 12 a kilo.

Agriculture department officials said the government planned to sell potatoes at Rs 14 a kg from its counters after buying the tuber at Rs 12 a kg.

A section of officials feared that the offer, if implemented, could prompt potato traders to raise the price of the tuber in the open market. The proposal to allow the export was made in a meeting with the chief minister in Nabanna.

The government took the decision at a time potato price has shot up from Rs 18 a kg to Rs 22 a kg following the ban on exports from July 28. The Jyoti variety of potato today sold at Rs 22 a kg in city markets.

Under normal circumstances, traders send 10,000 tonnes of the tuber to other states daily. The traders have decided to hold a meeting on Wednesday to discuss the proposal of the government.

An agriculture department official said the state planned to buy 250-300 tonnes of potato from traders at Rs 12 a kg and sell the crop at Rs 14 a kg from its 50 counters in Calcutta, Salt Lake and Howrah.

The government had partially relaxed the export ban between August 17 and 23, allowing traders to send out 5,500 tonnes of the crop to Odisha and Jharkhand. Although the current export unit of 700 tonnes daily is lesser than the 785 tonnes during the earlier seven-day relaxation, the state has proposed no such time frame this time.

Agriculture department officials said the decision to force traders to sell potato at a cheaper rate to the government could affect the much larger section which buys the tuber from the open market.

“It is expected that the losses the traders would incur by selling potato at a cheaper rate would be recovered while they release the crop in the open market. This could push up the price of potato during the coming festive season when the demand usually goes up,” an official said.

The official dubbed the state’s plan to sell potato at a discounted rate from its counters a “face-saving effort”.

But as Bengal produces surplus potato, stopping traders from exporting the crop could lead to losses. The state has around 25 lakh tonnes of potato in its cold stores, against a consumption demand of 17 lakh tonnes till mid-November.

“The price of potato would not have shot up had the government not intervened in the export,” an official said.

The official added that the ban on export had prompted people to “panic purchase”, fearing that the price would go up. “As the demand increased, the traders took the opportunity to raise the prices.”

Source : telegraphindia.com