The West Bengal government is scheduled to hold a meeting with potato traders and all stakeholders on Tuesday to ensure that normalcy prevails in the potato market in the State.
Last month, the government enforced a ban on the inter-State trade of the spud after prices shot up in the State significantly.
As the government has so far been sticking to its decision to not allow inter-State trade, potato growers and traders launched an agitation, saying they would be facing huge losses. The West Bengal Cold Storage Association and Paschim Banga Pragatishil Alu Byabsayee Samiti have urged the government to hold a meeting on this issue.
Reining in prices
“We will meet the traders and stakeholders on Tuesday (August 20). All the stakeholders have been invited,” State Panchayat Minister Pradip Majumdar told businessline.
Majumdar said the government imposed the ban last month as it wanted to control the rising prices of potatoes. “We wanted to sustain the price below ₹30 per kg in retail. Traders and the cold storage association have assured us. So, we are hopeful that we will be resolving this issue by tomorrow,” he said.
“Farmers have realised good prices last year. This year, we want to make sure that our consumers also do not suffer from any undue price rise. The trade should also co-operate and there should be normalcy in the market. These are our objectives, which we have discussed with our traders already. Now, we want to have a meeting all together and then make a decision,” the minister said.
Fear market loss
Potato traders in Bengal are fearing that they would lose their markets to Uttar Pradesh as the Mamata Banerjee-led government is sticking to its decision to not allow inter-State trade of the spud.
According to the traders, they are staring at huge financial losses due to the ban on the export of potatoes to other States. A further extension of the ban is likely to result in Bengal losing out in its major potato markets such as Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Assam to Uttar Pradesh. Usually, these four States depend largely on Bengal’s potatoes.
Bengal sells around 20-25 lakh tonnes of excess potatoes to the other States every year.