The Punjab government today decided to export 3,000 tonnes of potatoes to West Asia.
Announcing this here, state Cooperation Minister Captain Kanwaljit Singh said the state government, through its agency Markfed, will also send 200,000 tonnes of potatoes to Maharashtra, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
“There is no upper limit on the export of potatoes,” he said, adding that to make prices attractive the government will provide Rs 1,500 per tonne as freight subsidy to the growers.
Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal has sanctioned a corpus fund of Rs 5 crore from the Rural Development Fund for operating a freight subsidy of Rs 400 per tonne for marketing the commodity within India, and Rs 1,500 per tonne for exports.
In Uttar Pradesh, the freight subsidy on export is Rs 1,000 per tonne and Rs 250 per tonne on potatoes sent to other states.
The state government step will provide immediate benefit to farmers for the potato glut.
Singh said that the government will ensure that growers get benefit of the subsidy. The state’s marketing federation, Markfed, has achieved ‘Eurogap’ certificate for exports to the European Union.
“Private exporters keen to export potato can coordinate with the Markfed,” he said.
“The state government’s endeavour is to export maximum potatoes to foreign countries and this will be made a regular feature,” he said.
Punjab has already sent team to Dubai so that Markfed can enter the international market within a couple of days, said Singh, adding that the arrangements of standardisation, packaging and certification will be made by the state agency.
“Markfed will play the role of a facilitator,” he added.
After Dubai, the government plans to export potatoes to Sri Lanka. At present, the storage capacity of potatoes in Punjab is ten lakh MT, while the rate of production has fallen to Rs 200 per MT. The farmers are resorting to distress sale.
There is potato glut in the market, causing uneasiness among farmers in the state. The total production of potato in Punjab stands at 18-19 lakh MT annually.
