The West Bengal government on Tuesday decided to allow inter-State trade of potatoes for the next seven days on the consideration that there will be no shortage of the spud for the State and the prices will not rise.
After a meeting with potato traders and all stakeholders, the Mamata Banerjee-led government allowed selling of up to 2 lakh tonnes of the tuber from Bengal to other States for seven days from Wednesday.
“On the consideration that there will be no shortage of potato for the State and prices will stabilise — it can come down but not go up — till the fresh production arrives, for the next seven days the government will allow supplying potatoes upto 2 lakh tonnes to other States,” West Bengal Panchayat Minister Pradip Majumdar told businessline.
Long-term decision
Majumdar said officials would be keeping track of the price movement for potatoes. The government had enforced a ban last month on the inter-State trade of the spud after prices shot up in the State significantly. Notably, West Bengal is the country’s second largest potato-growing State.
Majumdar said the government would take a call on lifting the inter-State trade ban for a longer period if prices do not rise in the state during the next seven days.
“If the prices do not rise after allowing the seven-day inter-State trade, then the Chief Minister would take a call on extending the period for selling potatoes to other States. If the prices stabilise in the domestic market, obviously the date will be extended,” he said.
The government met potato traders and all stakeholders on Tuesday after the West Bengal Cold Storage Association and Paschim Banga Pragatishil Alu Byabsayee Samiti urged it to hold a meeting on the issue of inter-state trade.
Market loss fears
As the government was sticking to its decision to not allow inter-State trade, potato growers and traders were staging agitation saying they would be facing huge losses.
Potato traders in Bengal were fearing that they would lose their markets to Uttar Pradesh as the Mamata Banerjee-led government was sticking to its decision to not allow inter-State trade of the spud.
The traders said they were staring at huge financial losses due to the ban on the export of potatoes to other States. A further extension of the ban was likely to result in Bengal losing out in its major potato markets such as Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and Assam to Uttar Pradesh. Usually, these four States depend largely on Bengal’s potatoes.
Bengal sells around 20-25 lakh tonnes of excess potatoes to the other States every year.
“All the stakeholders at the meeting were happy today. Of course, the challenge remains for them to ensure that the supply remains smooth in the domestic market,” the minister added.
