NEWSPAPER reports said that suffering of potato growers is increasing day by day, as they are stuck with surplus stocks and low exports. Country produced a record high of 1.09 crore tonnes of potatoes last year. With an annual average demand of around 70 lakh tonnes, the country witnessed a surplus of about 40 lakh tonnes, most of which is wasted. For a lack of better use of the surplus, farmers are left with no option but to feed these potatoes to cattle. Not all of the surplus can be stored in the cold storages for low capacity, the newspaper said.
A seven-member committee comprising officials from the Agriculture Ministry, Commerce Ministry, DAE, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute and Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation has recently been formed to promote potato exports and explore new markets abroad. Bangladesh is the world’s seventh largest producer of potato. And potato is the staple food of about 50 nations, including most of the European countries. But we failed to utilize the opportunity to export surplus potato to those countries. Russia and the European Union were potential markets for Bangladeshi potatoes, but those opportunities ended in 2015-16 when Russia found diseases in potatoes exported from Bangladesh and issued a temporary ban.
There is a section of dishonest businessmen who try to export low quality products which create a negative image of the country. We think, there must be strict export guidelines in place. Side by side, if it is possible to produce good quality potatoes through good practices, foreign buyers will certainly be interested. However, Bangladesh last year exported potato flakes and crackers worth Tk 30 lakh to 26 countries. Usually, Bangladesh exports potatoes to Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Benin, Vietnam, Canada, Bahrain, Qatar, Myanmar, Nepal, Oman, Kuwait, Brunei, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Singapore.
At present, the farmers are not interested in selling the potatoes as market prices are low. What’s frustrating is that rice growers are facing huge crisis with their products for low price. Now the potato growers are in the queue. We must say, the government should take immediate initiatives to protect the farmers and save their business.
