Potato futures on NCDEX may gain on reports of crop damage in Andhra Pradesh and delayed monsoon. Besides, soaring vegetable prices might support the potato price rise in medium term.
On Tuesday, potato for August delivery on NCDEX opened up by more than 2 per cent, but gave away much of the gain to settle with a gain of 0.63 per cent.
Below-average-rainfall coupled with supply concerns in Andhra Pradesh would now shift the focus to the other two major potato growing regions of Agra and West Bengal for meeting the demand.
About 220 lakh tonnes of potato is stored in different cold storage.
Currently, the potato stock in Uttar Pradesh is down 11 per cent at about 89 lakh tonnes compared to 100.42 lakh tonnes stored in the same period last year.
Punjab has an inventory of about 16 lakh tonnes and in Bihar it was 10 lakh tonnes. West Bengal has about 50 lakh tonnes of potato in cold storage.
Sowing in Karnataka was affected by delayed rains, while in Maharashtra sowing for kharif season is yet begin.