Mamata's potato politics raises tuber prices by 20 per cent

KOLKATA | GUWAHATI: Potato prices in Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam and the northeast shot up 15-20% in the last two days, as West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee has barred its despatch to those areas, unless traders in her state sell the vegetable at Rs 14 per kg in local markets.

Potato traders in West Bengal have called for a threeday strike beginning September 1 against her decision, a move that is likely to push prices up further.

Currently, potatoes sell at Rs 22 per kg in Kolkata. Prices have risen to Rs 28-30 per kg in most parts of Assam.Around 80% of the northeast's potato demand is met by West Bengal and the remaining 20% by Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and local production.

Traders allege that Banerjee's stance has angered farmers and some are even thinking of abandoning cultivating the crop next season, which begins in November. West Bengal is the second largest producer after Uttar Pradesh.

Sensing trouble brewing among farmers, who form a large chunk of the ruling Trinamool Congress party's vote bank, general secretary Mukul Roy stepped in to hold a meeting with traders on August 29.

At the meeting that went on close to midnight, traders said they will not be able to sell potatoes at Rs 14 per kg. Roy may take the matter up with the chief minster to avert any possible crisis. The move will damage potatoes kept in cold storage, traders say.

"Last year too, she had stopped exports to other states. We had a meeting with Mukul Roy on August 29. Let's see what happens," said Dilip Pratihar, member of the West Bengal Progressive Potato Traders Association. "Farmers and other stakeholders in the trade are extremely upset as the chief minister is enacting an encore this year."

In Bihar, wholesale potato prices have risen Rs 200 per quintal to Rs 2,000. "At the retail end, one kg of potato fetched Rs 30. No consignment is coming from Bengal. If this situation continues, the prices of potato will further increase," said SN Ashraf, president of Bihar's Cold Storage Association.

Shyam Pansari, president of the Odisha Cold Storage Association, said, "It is a matter of concern. People of Odisha prefer potatoes from Bengal over Uttar Pradesh."

Northeastern states are getting potatoes from Uttar Pradesh though they though they cost more. "Given the uncertainty and the illegal tax collection at the check gates in Bengal, it is getting increasingly difficult to get potatoes from West Bengal," said Vinod Surana, secretary of the Guwahati Potato Onion Merchants' Association.

"In Guwahati, a kilogram of potato from West Bengal Rs 23 while the same from Uttar Pradesh costs Rs 26." At the Guwahati retail market, potatoes from West Bengal cost Rs 29 per kg while those from Uttar Pradesh were priced at Rs 34. Traders feel that the spike in potato prices will lift other rates as well.

"Increase in the price of potatoes increases the prices of vegetables," said Ramatulla Ansari, a wholesale vegetable trader in Guwahati.

"Last week, when potatoes prices rose from Rs 30 to Rs 38 in Assam, prices of vegetables increased from Rs 30 to Rs 50kg in the retail market."