Frequent load shedding is raising the risk of potato spoilage in Rajshahi’s cold storages, while operators are being forced to run generators at an additional cost of Tk8,000–10,000 per hour.
Cold storage owners said they are currently running generators for one to two hours a day to maintain the required temperature when electricity goes out.
According to the Department of Agricultural Marketing, Rajshahi has 39 cold storages, 37 of which are operational. Their combined storage capacity is 4.33 lakh tonnes.
However, higher potato production this year has led many facilities to store potatoes beyond their capacity. Industry insiders also alleged that some operators were pressured at the beginning of the season to accept more potatoes than their facilities could accommodate.
The combination of overloading and power outages has increased the risk of spoilage.
At Tamanna Special Cold Storage in Talanda, Tanore, trucks loaded with rotten potatoes are reportedly leaving the facility every day.
Saiful Islam, a businessman who stored potatoes there as seed for high-quality crops, said the facility had accepted potatoes beyond its capacity.
“Because of the load shedding, the potatoes are sweating and rotting. The rotten potatoes have to be discarded,” he said.
Ahad Ali, president of the Rajshahi District Potato and Raw Materials Cooperative Association, however, blamed poor management rather than load shedding for the spoilage.
He said many cold storage owners had overloaded their facilities at the beginning of the season, creating management problems.
Ifthekharul Islam Dhoni, general secretary of the association, said potatoes need to be repositioned and exposed to air 25–30 times during the storage period. But many cold storages have failed to carry out the process properly because of overloading.
“This is causing potatoes to rot. If the situation continues, the extent of losses faced by farmers and traders will be difficult to estimate,” Doni said.
He cited Rahman Brothers-1 Cold Storage in Alaibidirpur as an example. The facility has a capacity of 14,000–15,000 tonnes but is reportedly storing around 16,500 tonnes.
Fazlur Rahman, general secretary of the Rajshahi Cold Storage Association, acknowledged that some facilities had been forced to accept excess potatoes under pressure at the beginning of the season. However, he denied that poor management was causing the spoilage.
He said load shedding was increasing operational costs for cold storage owners.
“A cold storage can generally remain cool for one to two hours after a power outage. But if the outage lasts longer, we have to run generators,” he said.
“Running a generator for one hour costs an additional Tk8,000–10,000. We now have to operate generators for one to two hours every day.”
Cold storage operators already pay between Tk25 lakh and Tk28 lakh in monthly electricity bills, Fazlur said.
“We want uninterrupted electricity supply to the cold storages,” he added.
Ramendra Chandra Roy, senior general manager of Rajshahi Palli Bidyut Samity, said load shedding had decreased since last Wednesday and the situation had improved.
He said no cold storage owner had contacted him to report problems caused by the outages.
“Even if electricity remains unavailable for several hours, the cold storages generally do not face major problems,” he said.