Owners of cold storages stacking mounds of potatoes find themselves in hot water with farmers who had left stocks with them failing to return to pick them up after a steep fall in prices.
Cold storage owners in Agra, which has the largest number of godowns, say they have incurred losses of over half a million rupees this year due to high arrivals and low potato prices. Agra has more than 150 cold storages.
“Most farmers, who had stored their potato in cold storages have not returned to get their stock as they will have to incur a loss in order to pay the storage rent which is far more expensive than potato,” said a cold storage owner in Agra.
Cold storage owners in Agra on an average charge around Rs 100 per 50 kg as rental fee which also varies depending on the period for which it is stored.The price of good quality potato has slipped to Rs 110 per 80 kg from Rs 150 over the last fortnight due to high production, traders said.
“We will have to throw out the old potato from the storage now as new crop will be pouring in during January,” an official of Agra based-Prakash Cold Storage said.
New potatoes from Punjab will start arriving soon and it will add to the arrival pressure as the old stocks have not been sold out with demand for potato being weak all over India, storage owners said.