Potato sellers in West Bengal upset over restrictions on sale

Potato vendors and cold storage owners in West Bengal are unhappy after Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered restrictions in the last week of November 2024 on selling produce to neighbouring States. It has led losses for all the stakeholders, they claim.

Mr. Dilip Pratihar, secretary, Pragatishil Alu Byabsayee Samiti, said on Friday (January 3, 2025) that he feels whatever steps the Chief Minister is taking is only causing harm to the farmers and vendors like him.

Dilip Pratihar:

"We still have so much aloo (potato) left in our cold storages, it is the season of new harvest, where will we keep them, and who will buy from us any more if we cannot supply new produce?"

Mr. Pratihar spoke with a heavy heart and mentioned that in the next season of harvest, the poor potato farmers in the State are set to suffer due to the recent steps taken by Ms. Banerjee. This comes as a reaction to Ms. Banerjee’s recent outburst during an administrative meeting at the Secretariat on Thursday over the supply of potatoes. She slammed Ministers of Panchayat and Rural Development, Becharam Manna and Pradip Mazumdar, respectively.

Mamata Banerjee:

"You have started to release potatoes. Why did you do that without asking me? People here are buying potatoes at a higher price and you will supply it elsewhere?"

To this the Ministers accepted the mistake and said that they stopped the trade when they found out. 

Tarun Ghosh, a cold storage owner in the State, echoed the same concerns as of Mr. Pratihar.

Tarun Ghosh:

"The potatoes we produced in the State are best suited for Odisha, Chhattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh. They are different type and do not have market in Kolkata or West Bengal. We have over 25 lakh to 35 lakh sacks of potatoes in our cold stores across Medinipur and Bankura region. Each packet has 50 kgs of potatoes. Who will buy this? And where will we store this year’s produce?"

The cold storage owner also pointed out that if this blockade continued, then no one in the supply chain of potato production, from farmers to sellers, or cold storage owners will survive in the long run.

Tarun Ghosh:

"We made this business after we realised the demand in the other States. No government helped us then. If the government wants to supply low cost potatoes to Bengal, they should buy them from us. Why are they not doing that?"

Inspection by task force

After the meeting on Thursday (January 2, 2025), a task force, formed by the State government, inspected the markets in Kolkata and various districts to check the prices of potatoes and inquire whether the produce is being at an inflated price. The task force went to multiple prominent markets like Manicktala market in Kolkata, markets in North 24 Pargana district and others.

Rabindranath Koley, a task force member:

"We are here to check the hoarding of goods and see if they are charging excess by creating an unnecessary void in the market. We hope the prices will be normalised soon and the common man will face no issues."