Indian traders who bought potatoes at the auction yard in Phuentsholing this season are struggling to dispose off their stock.
Farmers from western region take their potato harvest to the Phuentsholing auction yard. They are bought in large quantities by Indian traders who in turn sell it to retailers in India.
This year, most of the potato harvest arrived at the auction yard towards the end of the season. By then, potatoes from the neighbouring Indian states had flooded the market, bringing the potato price at the auction yard crashing down.
After several weeks, the auction yard managed to sell every truckload of potatoes, albeit at very low price.
The Indian traders who bought the potatoes are now in a dilemma. They can’t find buyers.
N.K Shah has been buying and selling potatoes for the last 15 years. He has his business contacts and he never had to struggle finding buyers. Not till this year.
This year, he still has about 200 sacks of potatoes and they are beginning to rot.
“Fresh potatoes from India have hit the market. So no one is buying potatoes from us.”
Like him, there are about six other traders at the auction yard. They all have stocks of potatoes to dispose off.
Bharat Singh, another trader, has around 250 sacks of potatoes. He had to “throw away around 100 sacks.” Now he is selling a sack of potatoes for as low as Nu.50. Still he can’t find buyers.
Both the traders and auction yard officials believe that the situation would be altogether different had the farmers bought their harvest earlier. They suspect the farmers were hoarding in the hope of pushing up the auction yard price.
Whatever the reason, hundreds of truckloads of potatoes arrived at the auction yard at the same time pushing down the price.
“By bringing the harvest towards the end of the season, both the buyers and sellers lost money,” said Akluk Pelswan, a trader.
Farmers denied that they were stockpiling in the hope of better price. They could not bring it to the auction yard because of the bad road conditions in the Monsoon.
This year, the price has also been affected by a bountiful potato harvest in the neighboring Indian states.
