UNB:

Bangladesh Cold Storage Association, an organization of cold storage owners, on Saturday sought the government’s policy support to keep potato prices affordable in the market by providing protection to potato farmers by bringing potato storage rent to a bearable level.

They have demanded that the interest rate on bank loans, including the prevailing penalty interest, be reduced from 17 percent to 7 percent and the unit rate of electricity bill be reduced from Tk 13.62 during peak hours and Tk 9.62 during off-peak hours to Tk 5. They also want the withdrawal of VAT and tax deduction at source (TDS).

The organisation’s president, Mostafa Azad Chowdhury Babu, made the call at a press conference at its office.

He said that the potato market experienced a major price drop in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2017.

They are operating cold storages with various financial pressures and problems due to not being able to pay loan installments taken from the banks regularly, he added.

He also said that currently, Bangladesh Bank has issued instructions to pay bank loan installments every 3 months.

“But potatoes are stored in cold storages in March and are released in July. As a result, they are becoming defaulters due to not being able to pay the loan installments on a quarterly basis,” he said.

He mentioned that 2 percent interest is added to the 15 percent bank interest, making it 17 percent.

In this situation, he called for measures to reduce the cost of bank loan interest and electricity bills and to pay bank loan installments on an annual basis instead of quarterly.

The organization president said that in 2024, the association set the cold storage rent for potatoes at Tk 7/per kg. Accordingly, the rent for a 50 kg bag of potatoes is Tk 350. Potato preservers have taken out potatoes from the cold storage by paying Tk 350 for a bag weighing 70 to 72 kg.

He said that the cold storage owners are being deprived of the rent for 15 to 22 kg of potatoes per bag.

This has reduced the potato capacity of the cold storage by about 20-25% and an average cold storage of 10,000 MT has faced a financial loss of about Tk 1.5 crore to 2 crore.

Out of the 400 cold storages in the country, about 300 cannot repay bank loans on time and meet other operating expenses, and several cold storages have become loan defaulters.

He informed that in 2025, the rent per kg has been fixed at Tk 8, taking into account the above-mentioned costs.

Mustafa Azad Chowdhury called on everyone to ensure the country’s food security and protect the cold storage industry by helping to operate cold storage at a reasonable rent of Tk 8 per kg for storing potatoes in cold storage.

Saying that there has been sufficient production of potatoes this year, he assured that the price of potatoes at the retail level will not be the same as last year.