Tk 100m lab soon to provide pre-shipment potato test

The government will soon inaugurate a state-of-the-art lab at a cost of Tk 100 million (Tk 10 crore) to provide pre-shipment testing of potato in conformity with international standard, an official at the ministry of agriculture (MoA) said on Wednesday.
The accredited laboratory will be formally opened either at the end of the current month (December) or in January next year, aiming to boost the export of potato, the official said.
"The modern accredited lab will be launched either this year or in January next," a joint secretary of the ministry who preferred not to be named and also is involved with the process, told the FE yesterday.
The lab will test heavy metal, maximum residual limit (MRL), insecticides and pest in potatoes before shipment, he stated.
Experts said Bangladesh's climate and soil is very suitable to grow different types of tropical potatoes.
Bangladesh produces around 11 million metric tonnes of potatoes annually against a demand of around 7.0 million tonnes, leaving approximately 4.0 million tonnes surplus, which could have fetched a substantial amount of foreign currency from exports, wasted, according to the sector insiders.
The country witnessed 5.19 per cent annual potato production growth over the last five years.
Bangladesh is the seventh largest potato producer in the world. It produces cardinal, diamond, granola, manila and other varieties of potatoes.
Farmers, traders and experts said Bangladesh has bright prospect to increase export of potatoes due to its quality, taste and the best competitive prices the country offers.
The main importing countries of Bangladesh origin potatoes are Singapore, Vietnam, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, Saudi Arabia, Belgium, Russia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, the Philippines and Indonesia.
But potato export to Russia has been facing serious snags as it has put a temporary ban on potatoes from Bangladesh following detection of fungal diseases.
Bangladesh exported potatoes to different countries worth US $ 1.75 million in the last financial year (FY '19).
The agriculture ministry official further informed that they are working seriously to re-launch export of potatoes to Russia which is one of the world's big potato importers.
He said that there will be a meeting today (Thursday) at the MoA with the officials of different ministries and potato exporters to discuss extensively regarding potato export.

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