Potato Growers Vexed As Export Orders Dry Up.

KOLKATA | AHMEDABAD:Farmers in India'spotato belt are heading towards a financial crisis. They had loaded the vegetable incold storages hoping to get export orders from theCIS countries. But with no business in sight, the glut has pushed down prices by . 2-3 per kg over the last week.Traders and farmers are holding huge stocks following a bumper crop in 2010-11 , estimated to be over 35-36 million tonne by the industry and over 38-40 million tonne by National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation.

"A fall in potato prices is owing to three major reasons. Firstly, India had a bumper production this year with a crop size of over 35 million tonne. Secondly, the export orders which were initially stated were not reached. Thirdly, the consumption of potato lagged by 10% compared to previous year, owing to the availability of green vegetables," said Sachid Madan, director, Technico Agri Sciences, a subsidiary of the cigarette-to-hotel major ITC Limited. He added that there was no possibility of exports this year with new crop arriving in the European market.

"Prices in the domestic market will further fall in October and November when cold storages start emptying the stores as new crop starts arriving," said Madan. Patitpaban Dey, a potato producer in Bengal, added: "Farmers had anticipated that there will be a huge demand from the export markets of CIS and China. They had loaded the cold storages with potatoes and stayed away from releasing them in the domestic market . But this did not happen and farmers are in a fix now.

They are not being able to recover the cost of their farming ." Bengal, the second largest producer of the crop, has produced nearly 95 lakh tonne of potato in 2010-11 . Prices in Bengal have plummeted by . 2-3 a kg. Potato producers have met the state agricultural marketing minister Arup Roy to help them tide over the crisis. "We are looking into the matter. We are trying to send these potatoes to neigbouring states," Roy. But with domestic consumption showing a drop, it will be difficult for the farmers to sell their produce in neighbouring states as well.

In the Jalandhar market, the kufri pukhraj variety is selling for . 3 to . 3.50 a kg and the kufri jyoti variety at . 4 a kg. New supplies from Hassan in Karnataka have arrived and kufri jyoti is fetching . 7 a kg for and Atlantic, the processing variety, is gett-ing . 10 to . 11 a kg. Jung Bahadur Singh Sangha, a potato grower from Punjab, said, "we are advising fellow farmers not to dump their produce in the market as prices might pick up," he said.

Potato farmers, traders and cold storage owners from the potato seed belt of Punjab have now persuaded the government to set up a Punjab Potato Development Board to promote potato consumption .

What's Going Against Potato?

Traders and farmers are holding huge stocks following a bumper crop in 2010-11.

India had a bumper production last year with a crop size of over 35 million tonne; Bengal, second largest producer , produced 95 lakh tonne.

The export orders, which were initially stated, have not been reached yet.

The consumption of potato lags by 10% this year compared to the previous year owing to the availability of green vegetables.

Source : economictimes.indiatimes.com