Potato prices in West Bengal plummeted to record low on the arrival of the new crop, primarily from Punjab. The fall was accentuated by a huge 6 per cent inventory of last season's production. The wholesale price of the tuber nose dived to Rs 220-240 a quintal on Tuesday, from Rs 350 a quintal till about a fortnight ago.

Farmers and traders owning a huge 4 lakh tonne surplus stock lying in cold storages are the worst hit as the average price is nearly one-third of the cost of production and preservation estimated at Rs 550-600 a quintal.

While a small quantity of the new crop (potatoes) cultivated in Bankura district of West Bengal has come into the market, the primary reason for the steep fall in prices is the arrival of the new crop from Punjab, said Mr Ram Pada Pal, President, West Bengal Cold Storage Association.

The wholesale price of potatoes in markets such as Punjab and Uttar Pradesh has also witnessed a steep decline on account of good production and oversupply in other markets. “Production in UP and Punjab — which gets through by mid October — has been exceptionally good this year on the back of favourable weather. So the prices are quoting around Rs 200-250 a quintal in both these States,” Mr Pal said.

Close to 15 rakes (one rake contains 20,000 quintal) of potatoes have arrived from Punjab. “This has sent prices of Bengal potatoes crashing,” Mr Pal said.

Distress selling

Farmers and traders — who were holding on to their stock in anticipation of fetching better prices — are now going in for distress selling. “The country had a bumper crop last year so we were not able to exhaust the entire stock. The old and new crop is now vying with each other thereby dragging down prices further. The potatoes retained by traders or farmers are being sold at such low price that they are not even able to recover the expenses,” Mr Pal said.

The West Bengal Government — which had extended the deadline for storage of potato till December 15 — has further extended it till December 31, in order to help release the entire quantity of produce. Six per cent of the 58 lakh tonne of potatoes stored across the 403 odd cold storages in the State are still lying unconsumed.

Typically, potatoes find their way out of these cold storages by the end of November and the storage house is cleared and kept closed for maintenance between early December and mid-February.

“Going by the present trend, we do not think we will be able to consume more than 1-1.5 per cent of the stock. Potatoes have already started rotting because of this long storage period. More than 3 lakh tonnes of potatoes are likely to turn unfit for consumption,” said Mr Jayanta Sau, a potato farmer and trader.

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