The country's potato exporters are eyeing a big boost to their share in Russian market this year following an increased demand for the item there, industry insiders said.
"The demand for potatoes has increased abroad, as its production in Europe has fallen by around 15 per cent this year due to draught," Bangladesh Potato Exporters Association (BPEA) President Shaikh Abdul Quader told the FE.
"Russia is the third largest potato producer and consumer also. China and India are in the first and second position respectively. Russia also imports potatoes every year from European countries, Egypt, Cyprus, Morocco, Israel, Pakistan and other countries."
Mr Quader, also managing director of Agriconcern, a private agro-product company, said: "We are exporting potatoes to Russian market since 2011. The volume of export was negligible during the last three years. But this year exporters will send around 50,000 tonnes of potatoes."
"We've started sending our shipments to Russia Monday. We will weekly send three shipments and 1,000 tonnes of potatoes on an average to the country."
Generally traders start exporting potato in February and continue it till the first week of May. They are sending different varieties of potatoes, like - Granola, Combica, Laura, Asterix and Diana, as per the buyers' requirement.
"We have to maintain skin colour, glossiness, size and flesh of potatoes along with other things in line with the Russian buyers' demand," said Mr Quader.
"Agriconcern sent only five containers in 2011 and 57 containers in 2013. But this year we are hopeful of exporting around 17,000 tonnes of potatoes to Russia."
Russian representatives visited potato farms and processing centres in North Bengal last month.
The BPEA president said, "We have huge potential of exporting potatoes to Russia as well as other countries. But we need an integrated effort and long-term planning to increase our share in the global market."
"A G2G (government to government) arrangement between Bangladesh and Russia on potato purchase can help boost our export there. Initially, this sort of initiative helps the exporters a lot."
"Commerce ministry, agriculture ministry, stakeholders, researchers and agro scientists can work together to set a long-term plan, as potato production is gradually increasing in Bangladesh," he opined.
Bangladesh annually exports around 100,000 tonnes of potato to different countries, including Sri Lanka, India, Singapore, Brunei, Kuwait and Russia, according to BPEA.
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