Potato futures continued to move up on the National Commodities and Derivatives Exchange on Monday as speculators enlarged their positions. Besides, a firm trend in the spot market helped the bulls' cause. Emerging demand at lower levels amid the upcoming festive season, and deficient rainfall in growing belts further fuelled the uptrend.

Around 200-220 lakh tonnes of potato had been stored in the country in different cold storages during the current season. Although 27-30 per cent of the cold storage stocks are released so far from overall producing belts, they are much lower compared to normal 35-38 per cent every year.

On the NCDEX, the tuber for August delivery rose by Rs 5.2 to Rs 1,270 a quintal while the September series traded higher by Rs18 to Rs 1,381.

According to NHRDF, the rise in prices is due to lower crop in growing regions.

Karnataka has completed kharif sowing but the area sown is affected due to lower delayed rainfall.

Sowing in Maharashtra has been affected due to delayed arrival of monsoon, which is still scanty. The area for kharif is expected to be less or may be same with delayed planting compared with last year, but it depends on further rains.

With reports of crop damages in Karnataka, the supplies from this region to other States may be hit as the overall output is expected to decline by 70-75 per cent, NHRDF says.

In the spot market at Agra, potato was quoted at Rs 1174.7 while arrivals zoomed to 1,200 tonnes compared with 900 tonnes a fortnight ago.

At Sultanpur (Uttar Pradesh), arrivals that were 30 tonnes during the start of the month have now doubled while prices have gone up from Rs 1,175 to Rs 1,225.

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