Potato traders in West Bengal are going on strike as their meeting with the State Government on allowing them to sell the spud to the other states remained inconclusive on Monday.
Minister of State for Agriculture Marketing Becharam Manna held a meeting with potato traders’ association on Monday afternoon after the association had threatened to go on a strike if the government does not lift restrictions on selling the tuber to other states.
“We currently have excess potatoes at the cold storages across West Bengal. Therefore, we urged the government to allow selling of at least low quality potatoes to other state in phased manner. However, the Minister said he would not be able to take this decision alone as he needs to discuss the matter with Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. Manna requested us to withdraw the strike. We informed him that we also need to speak to our committee members on our future move,” Paschim Banga Pragatishil Alu Byabsayee Samiti secretary Lalu Mukherjee told businessline.
Mukherjee added that as the meeting remained inconclusive potato traders will go ahead with the strike. As a result, cold storages across Bengal will not release potatoes from Monday night.
“We will hold a meeting with our committee tomorrow and decide on whether traders would withdraw the strike. Following the meeting, we will inform the government about our decision,” Mukherjee said. The state has as many as 475 cold storages for potato.
According to him, currently, cold storages of the state has around 6-6.5 lakh metric tonnes of the spud and in December, the state is expected to require around 3.5-4 lakh metric tonnes of the tuber for consumption.
The Mamata Banerjee-led government has recently put a restriction on interstate supply of the tuber in a bid to maintain the stock and keep the price of potato under control.
Potatoes are retailing at around Rs 35-40 per kg in the local markets. Traders’ strike will increase the prices further due to lower supply.
Traders said there has been a significant difference between the wholesale and retail prices with the wholesale price remaining at around 27-28 per kg.
West Bengal sells around 20-25 lakh tonnes of excess potatoes to other states every year. States like Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand and Assam depend on the spud grown in Bengal.
“There are some specific varieties of potato which people of Bengal do not consume. These potatoes are generally sold to other states,” a trader said.
The price of potato has reportedly shot up in Jharkhand’s retail market after West Bengal restricted the supply of the tuber to other states.
Bengal generally meets around 60% of Jharkhand’s potato demand round the year, while the rest of the demand is met by Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and local production.