Bumper crop set to bring down potato prices

After a long spell of rising food prices, here is some good news for consumers: potato will be cheaper in the months to come.

Long winter season and better crop management has led to record potato production in West Bengal this year.

According to advance estimates by the West Bengal government, potato production this year is likely to be around 80 lakh ton, an increase of nearly 60 per cent over last year's production of 50.52 lakh ton.

The increase is despite the fact that the total area under potato declined from 4.67 lakh hectare last year, to 3.65 lakh hectare this year.

With the market likely to face an oversupply situation, potato prices are likely to remain low.

The current market price of Jyoti Kufri variety is Rs 5 per kg, against Rs 7-8 kg last year.

At the wholesale level, the price is close to Rs 160 per kg, against Rs 240 last year.

Till now, only 25 per cent of the potato crop harvested has come to cold storages.

Earlier, most growers and traders were reluctant to store the crop as they feared a massive price crash, admitted Patit Paban Dey, vice-president of West Bengal Cold Storage Association.

"This year was very good for potato because of a favourable climate and rain at the right times during the month of November. The traders were however anticipating a crash in potato prices owing to a bumper crop. Now, it appears that prices will remain stable in the coming months," he said.

Last year, late blight disease hit the potato fields and had damaged potato crop over 85 per cent of the cultivable area.

Poor seed quality imported from Punjab was another reason while the actual harvest was massively short of crop estimates.

This year only 35 per cent of potato seeds had been imported from Punjab.

"While there was no late blight disease this year, about 5 per cent of the crop was damaged due to early blight," said Dey.

About 45 lakh ton of potato in West Bengal was consumed by people within the state.

The rest of the crop was usually sold to buyers in Orissa, Assam and Andhra Pradesh.

The total capacity of the 370-odd cold storages meant for storage of potato only in West Bengal was around 53 lakh ton.