Tipu Munshi: Potato retail price to be fixed within 2-3 days

Commerce Minister Tipu Munshi on Thursday said that the government will fix the retail price of potatoes within the next two or three days.

He came up with the information after a views exchange meeting with newly-appointed Indian High Commissioner to Bangladesh Vikram Kumar Doraiswami in his office at the Secretariat.

The minister said the Agriculture Ministry has decided on the price. The price of cold storage potatoes was Tk35 to 40 on Wednesday. It is being sold at Tk28 today which was fixed at Tk27.

 “We’re very optimistic. In the next two to three days, the price of potatoes in the retail market will come down,” said Tipu Munshi.

The government is making efforts to reduce prices. The Commerce Ministry does not control this, it is controlled by the Ministry of Agriculture, said the minister.

 “We’ve come up with the initiative of selling potatoes in the market at Tk25 per kg through TCB for the consumers,” the minister said.

Also read: Wholesalers halt potato sales at Karwan Bazar

Onion prices to remain high 

Regarding the onion crisis, the minister said the government wants to make Bangladesh self-sufficient in onions in the next three years.

 “We want to reduce the dependence on India for onions,” he said.

Onions are produced in India and Bangladesh at the same time. India stopped exporting onions last year and this year too. When in our country onions cost Tk250 per kg, the price was 150 rupees in India.

 “We’ve learned that they can stop exporting onions at any time when they need,” said Tipu. “We need to give importance to self-service so that we don’t need to be so much dependent on India or other countries.”

The government is importing onions from Turkey, Egypt, China and Myanmar as India has stopped exporting them, he said.