Despite a good yield, the poor price at the FCBL auction yard in Phuentshogling has left potato growers high and dry as they struggle to sell their produce even after lowering the rates. Unable to fetch good prices, some of the farmers have now spent over a week at the auction yard just in the hope that the prices will improve.
Trucks of various sizes, fully loaded with potatoes from almost every corner of the country have been entering the Phuentshogling auction yard for the past week just to find out the price of the tuber has dropped to its lowest.
“For now, we are only able to make about Nu 300 for a quintal of a small potato. Earlier we used to get about Nu 1,300 per quintal. The cost of medium-sized potatoes has also dropped from Nu 2,500 to 2,600 per quintal to Nu 700 to 800 per quintal. This is a huge drop. We are worried and don’t know what to do,” said Pema Gyeltshen, a farmer from Wangdue Phodrang.
“In the past, despite all the challenges, we were able to sell our produce within two to three days. But it is not the same anymore. With a low price, we cannot sell our goods. We don’t have a proper place to store our potatoes here. Phuentshogling is a hot place and potato gets damaged with time. I think it will become very difficult to sell potatoes if this continues for a long time,” said Rinzin, a farmer from Haa.
“For a farmer from Bumthang like me, it will be very difficult to meet our expenses if we sell our produce at the current rate. To bring potatoes here, we have to travel for about three nights and bear high transportation charges. We cannot leave our produce here and go back as there is no space to unload,” said Tashi Tshering, a farmer from Bumthang.
As such, many of them are waiting patiently here only with the hope that the price will improve.
“It has been around eight days now that I brought potato from Phobjikha till here. There is no surety whether I will be allowed to unload my goods today or not. We have been bearing all the expenses and sleeping in our trucks. There is every chance that we might even get sick,” said Namgay, a driver from Wangdue Phodrang.
Some of them blame the private vegetable exporters for the price decrease. They say lately, a few of the local private vegetable exporters have been exporting potatoes to India via Jaigaon without visiting the FCB auction yard.
“What I feel is that problem of the low price of potatoes is caused by the vegetable exporters who are selling potatoes via Jaigaon. If they are not stopped, I think this problem will continue,” said Tobgay, a farmer from Paro.
On the other hand, the FCBL regional office in Phuentshogling cited the availability of cold storage for potatoes in various parts of India at minimal prices as one of the main reasons for the decrease in the prices this time.
“This is normally the time when the prices of potato fall as during these times of the year, potatoes from cold storage are made available in India. For example, just a few days before the potato from cold storages Punjab and North Bengal came into the market. It was only two rupees for a kilogram of potato,” said Ugyen, the Officiating Regional Director of the Phuentshogling Regional Office.
Moreover, he added despite the office’s request, farmers didn’t bring the potato as soon as it was harvested.
Despite this, the office informed us that they are looking forward to introducing more Indian bidders and working on the possibility of exporting potatoes to other countries like Bangladesh and Nepal as well.
“As a probable solution to the problem, we are trying to introduce more Indian bidders. Every year, through our registration process we are trying to bring in new bidders so that our farmers can get good prices for their produce,” added the Offg. Regional Director.
According to the FCBL, earlier farmers could fetch a minimum of Nu 2,500 per quintal for large and medium-sized potatoes. Likewise, small-sized potatoes could easily fetch a minimum of Nu 1,000 to 1,500.
Bhutan exports about 30 to 33 metric tons of potatoes to India every year.
Passang Dorji, Phuentshogling
