Bangladesh: Why potato registers record price

There is indeed a limit to making profit. Potato has ever remained an alternative to the country’s main staple rice. The reasons are quite simple. According to the FoodData Central from the US Department of Agriculture, potato is more nutritious than white rice. It has higher percentages of dietary fibre, vitamins and minerals. While potato contains vitamin A, beta carotene and vitamin C, those are absent in white rice.

Unfortunately, potato hardly received the preference it deserved. There is no reason to think that people in Bangladesh have suddenly discovered the comparatively higher food value of potato and started preferring it to rice, raising its demand manifold. Since last year, potato has become dearer. For decades, potato production was more than the country’s requirement. Almost every year until 2022, the price slumped far below the production cost. It was one of the cheapest vegetables-cum-staples. There was potato glut in the market and farmers and potato traders were at times so irate that they did not even take their stored potato out from cold storages or used it as cattle feed.

Even time-to-time official sermons for culinary diversity for more consumption of potato by people fell on deaf ears. Then some policy adjustments were made in order to export the item. In fact, it has been exporting potato to a few South and South-east Asian countries. Russia showed its interest in importing potato from Bangladesh and the process got going on a limited scale.

Now the question is, what happened in 2023 that the supply suddenly shrank and the price started galloping? Yet last year, the price was at Tk 50-55 a kilo around this time. Now the excuse traders have come up with is that supply shortage is the main reason for the outrageous price escalation. Is this convincing enough? There was no news that farmers have lost interest in growing potato or the acreage of potato cultivation shrank in the growing areas. If the supply is short, it is because of the intrigues traders are adept in subtly pulling off. They have a pattern of doing so. They target one or the other prime item for abnormal profit making either before Eid-ul-Fitr or Eid-ul-Adha or even at the outset of the harvesting period.

A closer scrutiny will reveal that they do not target perishable items with a brief shelf life. They target only those perishable items that have almost a year-long shelf life if stored in cold storages. Otherwise, their prime targets are usually the staples, cooking oil, sugar and such essentials. This is on top of the imported spices, toiletries and some other items of mass use. If there is news of depleted stocks of staples or any other essential, they grab the opportunity with both hands. Even if the government lowers and even waives the import duty, they would dilly dally to import the commodity. Their purpose is clear: they would not help the government by augmenting the supply and bringing down the prices. Right now rice prices in international market are moderate ---much lower than the level in Bangladesh. But the domestic price of the main staple here has been hiked three times in recent times.

Now that Indian onion has arrived, the price has come down by Tk 10-15. But is it enough? Why is the LC price not matched with the price tags of the exporting country and then the transporting and other costs added to scrutinise where the total import price stands. It is ludicrous to fix prices without collecting all the requisite data. For example, potato price was officially fixed at Tk39 a kilo, but it was priced at Tk 65-70 a kilo at that time. Actually, traders test the administration to see how serious it is to execute its decision. Once they sense laxity, they go about their business unrestrained and this explains the unrelenting price hikes in this country.