Cold storage owners have decided not to raise their preservation rates this year as the government is not increasing the power tariff, an industry leader said.
"We're not going to raise the rate this season. Potato farmers will have to pay Tk 360 for 80 kg potato sacks while Tk 220 for 50 kg potato-leno mesh bag as last season's," said Bangladesh Cold Storage Association (BCSA) president Md Jasim Uddin
BCSA president said the government will not increase the price of electricity while diesel price is also within the reasonable limit, so the cold storage owners will not hike the preservation cost this year.
Md Abdul Gaffar, a potato farmer of Joypurhat, told the FE over telephone that the price of a 40-kg bag of potatoes is selling at Tk 170 to Tk 300 for different types of potatoes at the farm level.
"That means we are getting Tk 4.25 to Tk 8.0 a kg of potato and if the price range is between Tk 250 and Tk 350 for a 40 kg-sack depending on the variety then it will be beneficial for us."
He said last year the farmers experienced a big fall in potato price as the farmers sold the produce between Tk 60 and Tk 70 at the farm level last year.
The potato farmers will start keeping potatoes in the cold storage at the end of this month and store it until the end of November.
An official of the BCSA said around 60,000 sacks of old potatoes are still in seven cold storages of Rangpur and Lalmonirhat area.
BCSA officials said nearly 403 cold storages across the country could store 5.0 million tonnes of potatoes.
The price of a kilogram potato is around Tk 10 to Tk 18 at different city kitchen markets Thursday, according to the state-owned Trading Corporation of Bangladesh (TCB) on Thursday.
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