To curb the continuous rise in the price of potatoes and bring relief to consumers, the government has fixed the price of potato at Tk 30 per kilogram (kg) in the retailkitchen markets.
Department of Agriculture Marketing (DAM)has issued a notice on Wednesday and forwarded it to Deputy Commissioners (DCs) across the country to take necessary steps in this regard.
DAM notice reads,as there is sufficient stock of potatoes in the country.Potatoes have to be sold at Tk 30 per kg in the retail markets. At the wholesale level, the price is fixed at Tk 25 per kg and at the cold storage level the price is Tk 23.
The letter sent to the DCs requested to take necessary measures with strict monitoring and surveillance so that all the three parties, including cold storage owners, wholesalers, and retailers, sell potato at the prices fixed by the government.
According to the DAM, the cost of per kg potato production for this season is Tk 8.32. From production to storing at cold storage including other expenses per kg potato price stands at Tk 21.
Recently, the price of potato in the retail market was shot up to Tk 50 to Tk 55 per kg. Retailers, wholesalers and cold storage owners trade blames each other for sudden price hike. However, a market analyst said that an unscrupulous syndicate is active behind the potato price spiral.
DAM statistics showed that some 19 million tonnes of potatohave been produced this year. The annual demand is about 7.7 million tonnes. As such, there should be a surplus of about 11 million tonnes of potato. Although some amount of potatoes is exported, there is no possibility of shortage.
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the Directorate of National Consumers Right Protection (DNCRP) is conducting a special drive to control the price of potatoes in the wholesale and retail markets in the capital city.
Deputy Director of DNCRP Masum Arefin said five teams of the department are conducting special drives in the retail and wholesale markets of Dhaka to monitor whether potato, onion, rice or other essential commodities are being sold at reasonable prices.
Among them, two teams of the Ministry of Commerce are working for market monitoring. Those who increase the prices of daily commodities abnormally will be fined and punished according to the existing law, he said.
However, despite government warnings, potato still sells at a higher price. Visiting the Karwan Bazar kitchen market it was learnt that per kg of potato was being sold at Tk 42. Wholesale traders refrained from making any comment about it.
More monitoring is needed to check anomalies in the kitchen markets across the country to keep the potato price under control, experts opined.
