To curb price hike: State to release 60 lakh metric tonnes of potatoes

KOLKATA: State Agricultural Marketing minister Biplab Mitra has assured that the potato price in south Bengal including Kolkata will come down and stabilize by the end of this week. The price of the Jyoti variety of potato has soared to Rs 30-32 per kg while the Chandramukhi variety has risen to almost Rs 45 per kg.

“The price of potatoes in North Bengal is Rs 12 per kg while in South Bengal it has gone up above Rs 30.

We have given necessary instructions so that all the cold storages in South Bengal are opened and the 60 lakh metric tonnes presently in stock to be released with immediate effect. This will result in stabilising the price to a reasonable extent,” Mitra said after chairing a meeting with senior officials of his department on Tuesday.

The production of both Jyoti and the Chandramukhi variety of potato has been less because of the untimely and erratic rainfall.

The production has been less and so the quantity of storage last year stood at 73 lakh metric tonnes.

However, in North Bengal,

the production has been bumper with cultivation being taken up in additional 30 hectares of land this year. The increase in production has been to the tune of over 100 crore kg.

Some of these potatoes have been exported to Nepal, Bihar and some other states but still the price has remained in and around Rs 15/16 per kg.

The Sufal Bangla outlets in the state have been selling the Jyoti variety at Rs 23 per kg. Another variety Pokhraj was sold at Rs 18 per kg.

Patit Paban Dey, former President of West Bengal Cold Storage Association said that the wholesale market price of potatoes has been in the range of Rs 23 to 24.

The retailer price would have been Rs 27 to 28. “However, a section of retailers has further raised the price citing less production. The Chandramukhi production has been 25 to 30 per cent less this year. So the price has soared to such an extent,” he added.