INDORE: A decline in industrial use of potato during the Covid-19 pandemic has dampened prices, making it unprofitable for farmers and leaving towering stocks at cold storages even after the end of the season.
Cold storages across Indore, Ujjain, Dewas and Shajapur are stuffed with processing varieties of potato that usually get exhausted by August, the last month of the potato storing season, as farmers are not taking their produce out due to poor prices and lack of market.
Processing variety potato is used for making chips, snacks and powder by industries but the pandemic induced restrictions and shut markets curtailed the purchases by industries.
Potatoes are stored in cold storages from February to August, as per cold storage owners. Cold storage owner Babulal Choudhary said, “By this time of the year, stocks of the processing variety of potato is cleared from the cold storages. But this season, most of the stocks are still inside because prices have dropped and farmers are not in a position to take them out.”
There are over 100 cold storages in Indore, Ujjain, Dewas and Shajapur. Industry players said, last year in the same time period, the price of processing variety of potatoes was Rs30-35 per kg, which has dropped below Rs 3 per kg this year.
