50pc decline in new potato prices

Prices of early variety potato declined nearly by 50 per cent in just three days following increase in supply from the growing hubs, traders said.
Newly harvested potato, which sold at Tk 80-120 per kg a few days back, reduced to Tk 40-60 per kg in different kitchen markets in the city on Wednesday.
At Nawabganjbazar, Azimpur Graveyard area and Banalata Kitchen Market newly harvested potato sold at Tk 40-50 per kg while it sold at Tk 50-60 at Hatirpool, Shankar, Mohammadpur Krishi Market and Mirpur Section-6 Kitchen Market.
The price of stored potato (last year's crop) reduced by Tk 1-2 per kg in the country and sold at Tk 18-20 (in Rangpur) and Tk 23-24 (in Dhaka) per kg on Wednesday.
 "I've bought per palla (five kg) of new potato at Tk 150 today from Karwan Bazar wholesale market which was Tk 250-300 per palla two days back," Jakir Hossain,  a retailer at Banalata Kitchen market under New Market area said.
He said the price may go down further in the coming days.
Md Abdul Latif, president of Karwan Bazar Kanchamal Aratdar Baboshayee Samity, an association of vegetable wholesalers, said: "Supply of the crop from Rangpur, Nilphamari and Dinajpur districts increased significantly over the last few days which caused the price to decline."  
 "Cost for transporting per tonne (1000 kg) of potato from Rangpur reduced to Tk 32,000-34,000 from Tk 65,000-70,000 a few days back," he said.
According to the Department of Agriculture Extension (DAE) Rangpur Region, farmers planted early variety of potato on nearly 15,000 hectares in the eight districts which were 13,500 hectares last year.
The highest acreage was noticed in Nilphamari district with 11,500 hectares, according to the DAE Regional Office.
Potato production reached all-time high of 8.95 million tonnes in the fiscal year (FY) 2013-14, according to the Bureau of Statistics (BBS).
Deputy Director at Monitoring Unit under DAE Md Rafiqul Hasan said the production at per hectare will increase significantly as the soil is much fertile this year following two consecutive floods which left a huge volume of silt.   
He said the department has targeted to get 8.95 million tonnes of potato this year from 0.45 million hectares of land.

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