West Bengal’s ban on vegetable exports is retrograde

ET Bureau Nov 4, 2013, 04.37AM IST

KOLKATA: Mamata Banerjee has imposed a ban on export of vegetables from Bengal, creating shortages, particularly of potatoes, in the north-east and in some neighbouring states.

This not only works to the disadvantage of farmers in her own state but also against the idea of India as one coherent economic and political entity. If Punjab were to clamp down on export of wheat and rice from the state, Maharashtra of onions and Gujarat of petrochemicals, the result would be loss and chaos. Such bans are irrational and anti-national. Banerjee should lift the ban.

This does not mean that state governments should play passive observers as artificial shortage crimps their citizens' consumption of vegetables. On the contrary. State governments can and must launch a concerted intelligence drive to locate missing onions and potatoes, crack down hard on hoarders and bring the hoarded stocks to the market swiftly. There have been minor rain-induced problems in production and transport but initial estimates are that the onion crop in the current marketing year would be as much as 15% higher than the output of 16.3 million tonnes registered in 2012-13.

The structure of the onion market is extremely skewed and amenable to abuse by a few large traders, found a study commissioned by the Competition Commission of India, published in October 2012.

Some speculate the current shortage is the result of political manipulation, in which onions have been bought up, secreted away in empty flats, to feed anti-incumbency passions in a key consuming state like Delhi. Since farmers receive as little as Rs 5 a kg, the outlay on sequestering a million tonnes for a month is the cost of financing Rs 500 crore, if the principal onion traders cooperate. The governments of Maharashtra and Karnataka should actively get to the bottom of the onion shortage.

The Centre should issue strict warnings against the tendency to play the populist card displayed by the Bengal CM. At the same time, it has to initiate action to clean up the structure of agri-marketing, which today serves middlemen at the expense of farmers and consumers.

Good harvest cools potato prices

20 Jan, 2011, 01.14AM IST, Sutanuka Ghosal & Madhvi Sally,ET Bureau

KOLKATA & CHANDIGARH: Though onion prices are yet to cool down, potato prices have dropped at the retail end. An early good crop of potatoes in Punjab, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh has pushed down the prices. While in Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, mandi prices of the Pukhraj variety are hovering around Rs 2.50-2.75 per kg, the mandi price is about Rs 4 - 4.50 per kg in West Bengal. Potato prices in southern India are ruling at Rs 14-16 a kg.

According to industry officials, supplies will pick up by the second week of February across the main centres of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal. Sachid Madan, director, Technico Agri Sciences, a subsidiary of the cigarette-to-hotel major ITC, said potato production was likely to remain at 32 million tonne and prices would be firm. “Prices will correct when cold stores open by February,” he said while adding that the processing varieties will be harvested by the second week of February.

“The prices of processing varieties such as Chipsona and Lady Rosetta are ruling at `10 a kg in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh whereas in Uttar Pradesh the prices are at `6.5-7 a kg,” he said.

Bengal is expecting a 95-lakh-tonne production this year as well. “Weather has been favourable. Though the sowing area is slightly less this year, we expect production will be around 95 lakh tonnes,” said Sanatan Santra, president of West Bengal Progressive Potato Traders Association.

At a Ludhiana mandi, Rajesh Khanna, owner of Ramji Das Benarsi Das, said potato was sold for ` 6 a kg in January first week but the price has gradually fallen. On Wednesday, spot prices were quoted at `2.50-2.75 per kg for the early-crop Pukhraj variety. He added that prices were ruling at `4- 4.50 a kg in West Bengal and `4.50 at the Khandauli mandi in Agra.

Potato prices may dip as Bengal plans stock cut

By Sutanuka Ghosal & Madhvi Sally, ET Bureau

3rd Sept, 2010, 12.24AM IST

KOLKATA & CHANDIGARH: Potato prices may drop as the West Bengal government is all set to offload 1 million tonne (mt) in the market by next week to rapidly cut excess stocks. Output in India’s second largest potato growing state doubled this year to touch almost 10 mt. But branded snack companies such as ITC and Pepsi will see no dip in raw material costs as the prices of the specialised varieties they buy remain steady.

Talking to ET, Mr Mortaza Hossain, West Bengal’s minister of agricultural marketing, said: “We have decided to offload the potato that we had asked consumer cooperatives under the West Bengal State Consumers Cooperative Federation (Confed) to procure. The offloading will begin from next week. We are currently working on the model that we will use to offload these potatoes.”

West Bengal finance minister Asim Dasgupta said: “These potatoes will be sold in two phases. The first phase will kick off from September 9 and will continue till the first week of October. In the first phase, we will offload 5 lakh tonne. Of this 5 lakh tonne, 1 lakh tonne will be sold through public distribution system at a price lower than the market price by Re 1 per kg. The rest 4 lakh tonne will be sold through a tendering process.” The second phase will begin after the Pujas and will continue till the first week of December. “The modalities of selling potatoes in the second phase has not yet been decided,” he added.

Confed had procured 1 mt from farmers at Rs 3.50 per kg. Prices in retail markets are currently ruling at Rs 5-12 a kg. Prices of varieties used in snacks such as Chipsona, Atlantic and Lady Rosetta are ruling at Rs 8-9 a kg, said Nischint Bhatia, executive vice-president at PepsiCo India.

Potato is India’s top vegetable crop, with an annual output of 35 mt that contributes the lion’s share to the total annual vegetable production of 100 million tonne. Table potato prices are politically sensitive for the government that monitors them closely as it is an Indian household favourite across incomes.

“A sentiment dip for a short term may happen. In the long term, prices will remain stable before the new crop hits the market from Punjab, West Bengal and Bihar,” said Sachid Madan, director at Technico Agri Sciences, a subsidiary of the cigarettes-to-hotel major ITC Limited. “Prices are bound to increase by Rs 2-3 in October-November when new processing variety crop comes from South and Central India.

However, with Punjab crop coming in from November, end prices will touch Rs 8-9 a kg,” he said.

The company procures close to 1.5 lakh tonne potato annually. In the previous year, processing varieties prices had touched at Rs 16 a kg.

In Bengal, consumers at the retail end get two kinds of potatoes — Chandramukhi and Jyoti. In the wholesale market, Chandramukhi potatoes are available at Rs 600-625 per quintal whereas Jyoti is available at Rs 500 per quintal. The retail consumer gets Jyoti potatoes at Rs 6 a kg whereas the Chandramukhi variety is available at Rs 8-9 per kg.

Sowing has already begun in Una district of Himachal Pradesh and Hoshiarpur district of Punjab where Pukhraj and Chandramukhi varieties are being planted. Across India, sowing will begin after paddy is harvested in October. “The Una and Hoshiarpur crop will come into the market by November and we expect prices to fall with a huge stock in the country,” said Naininder Singh Dhillon, an expert in potato marketing and farming in Punjab.

On Thursday, the MCX September contract was ruling at Rs 425.70, October at Rs 453.10 and March 2011 at Rs 468.10.