Bangladesh Cold Storage Association (BCSA) placed on Sunday eight-point demand following a sharp fall in potato prices in the local market.
The leaders of the association said potato growers and cold storage owners have already incurred financial losses of over Tk 12.51 billion this year due to an increase in power tariff, operational costs of cold storages and labour cost.
Their observation came at a press conference held at the National Press Club in the city. BCSA president Md Mosharraf Hossain read out a written statement at the press conference.
He said there are 416 cold storages in the country that preserve potato (for consumption), potato seeds, potato used for industrial purposes and exportable potato.
Only 58.5 per cent or 3.1 million tonnes of potato out of 5.3 million tonnes, stored in around 400 cold storages, were sold at lower prices this year, he added.
Mr Hossain said the cold storage owners have been facing difficulties in repaying bank loans due to a fall in potato prices.
He also suggested finding out a way based on consensus and discussions between banks and financial institutions and cold storage owners for repaying bank loans.
Cold storages owners had to sell an 80-kg sack of potato at losses between Tk 700 and Tk 1,000 due to increased operational costs, he said.
The owners of cold storage purchased per sack of potato at Tk 1,000 with bank loans. Along with preservation cost of Tk 300, bank interest on loan at Tk 100 and other costs including operational, labour and power tariff, the total cost stood at Tk 1,500 per sack of potato. But per sack of potato is now being sold at only Tk 200, according to BCSA.
The demands include 30 per cent cash incentives for potato exporters, formation of high-powered committee and setting up of monitoring cell comprising the representatives of cold storage owners and other stakeholders and implementation of the power ministry's decision on 20 per cent rebate on power tariff for agro-based cold storages.
They also suggested that the government should hold seminar, symposium and other programmes to popularise potato so that it could be an alternative to rice at union level, provide interest-free loans to the farmers for the next production season, sale of potato at open market sale programme, food for work, vulnerable group feeding (VGF), relief and food for work programme.
