West Bengal govt worried about rise in fruit prices, bans exports of potatoes

KOLKATA: Chief minister Mamata Banerjee has asked agricultural marketing and police authorities to inquire and find out what had led to the huge increase in price of fruits in the market. Prices of fruits have shot up enormously, especially for apple, papaya, mangoes and cucumber. Even as the mango season is almost over and price hike may be justifiable to some extent, for the other fruits, the hike has been exorbitant.
The CM asked the task force -- formed to keep a tab on the price of fruits and vegetables -- to check why there is a gap between the wholesale and retail market prices of fruits, a senior official said. Efforts have to be strengthened to get all fruits uninterrupted from north Bengal, the CM instructed officials. Mamata Banerjee has expressed worry about the prices of fruits going up and there being no signs of the price of potato coming down.
The state government, meanwhile, has also decided not to send potatoes outside Bengal for the time being due to fears of a further price increase if local demands could not be met with. The decision was also taken at a meeting of the task force.
The task force was formed afresh last month after prices of vegetables kept increasing. The vegetable prices have since then come down relatively, but potato continues to be Rs 15-16 per kg. Therefore, it was decided that the domestic demand of potatoes would first have to be catered to from the 32 lakh tonne potato that are in store in the state.
Potatoes are sold from Bengal to many states like Odhisa, Bihar, Jharkhand, and other northeastern states like Assam and so on.
West Bengal requires 5.5 lakh tonne of potato per month, and the new potato crop will be ready only in November. Therefore, there will be 22 lakh tonne potato required for the Bengal market till then. Another 5 lakh tonne is required for seeds. According to an official, there is enough supply of potato for people in the state till November, when the cold storages have to be vacated. Apart from the CM, agricultural marketing minister Arup Roy, the department secretary Subrata Biswas, city police commissioner RK Pachnanda were also present at the meeting.
Later, Roy said that if the local demand can be fulfilled, and there is no pressure, then there are possibilities that the price of potatoes at the local markets may see a fall. If the situation improves, then the decision not to send potato outside the state may be reviewed again, said an official.