Agriculture and Home Affairs Advisor Lieutenant General Md. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (retd.) has requested the Bangladesh Cold Storage Association to store old potatoes in cold storage until December to compensate for losses of potato farmers.
The advisor made this request while speaking as the chief guest at the first-ever Potato Festival organized by the Bangladesh Cold Storage Association at the Bashundhara International Convention Center in the capital on Friday morning.
The advisor said that a record amount of about 1.12 crore metric tons of potatoes have been produced this year, which is about 2.2 million metric tons more than the demand. The cost of potato production in 2025 is 14 to 17 taka per kg depending on the location. The cost of potato at the cold storage gate, including storage costs in the cold storage, transportation, bags, labor and other costs, has stood at 20-25 taka per kg. On the other hand, potato farmers are forced to sell potatoes at the cold storage gate at a price of 8 to 16 taka per kg, which is much lower than their production costs. As a result, potato farmers are suffering. He said that to compensate for this loss, the Bangladesh Cold Storage Association has been requested to store old potatoes in cold storage until December. Moreover, it will take 15 days more for new potatoes to reach the market this year. Therefore, this decision has been taken in the larger interest of the farmers. In this Cold storage owners may suffer a little, they will have to pay additional electricity bills. However, food production artisan farmers will benefit. He urged the concerned to take necessary steps to reduce the cost of potato production per kg.
Lieutenant General Md. Jahangir Alam Chowdhury (Retd.) said, although a large amount of potatoes are produced in the country, we are lagging behind in the potato processing industry. Only 2% of potatoes are processed in Bangladesh, while in other countries of the world it is 7%. Therefore, we need to give importance to potato processing. And for this, it is necessary to select the best varieties of potatoes suitable for processing and cultivate them. The advisor said, its fixed price should be written on the packets of imported potato seeds. This will benefit the farmers.
The agricultural advisor said, sufficient onion production has been achieved this year. Still, due to the manipulation of some people, the price of onion increased by 35 taka per kg in a day, so we are forced to allow onion import in the interest of consumers. Onion import will continue until the price of onion in the market reaches 70-80 taka per kg.
Special features of the event The guest speakers were Dr. Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian, Secretary of the Ministry of Agriculture, Prof. Dr. A.K. Fazlul Haque, Vice-Chancellor of Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh, Joris Van Bommel, Ambassador of the Netherlands to Bangladesh, Tony Lv, General Manager of Hangzhou Fima Expo Co. Ltd., China, and others. The program was attended by high-ranking officials of various government and private departments/organizations/associations/chambers, leaders of Bangladesh Cold Storage Association, and cold storage owners, potato farmers, business leaders and entrepreneurs from different districts of the country.
The advisor later visited various stalls set up around the Potato Festival.
