A glut caused by bumper potato crops reportedly forced farmers to dump thousands of tonnes of surplus potato in Deesa last month.
Yet there has been no decline in the price of the tuber for end users.
Sources in the market say that the price at which the farmer sells his potato in the wholesale market is around Rs5 a kilo. By the time it reaches the consumer, the price of the potato has gone up to Rs 12 a kilo!
DNA traces the journey of the potato from the farm to the kitchen and tries to find out who adds how much to the cost of this essential item on every family’s menu. Farmers from the state’s potato growing areas such as Deesa, Dehgam, Modasa, Kapadwanj and a few villages of Madhya Pradesh, sell their potatoes to wholesale traders in Ahmedabad at around Rs4.5 to Rs5 per kg.
Diesel, whose prices have shot up in last 2-3 years, contributes another 50 paise to the price of the tuber as transportation charges. At this point, the price reaches Rs5.5 per kg of potato.
Commission agents and labour charges in Ahmedabad push the prices up by another rupee. The retailers buy potatoes at Rs6 to Rs6.5 per kg. Now, the same potato is sold to consumers for Rs10 to Rs12 per kg! The profit margin for the retailer is Rs4 to Rs5.5, which is more than 40% of the cost to the end user.
From the price of Rs4.5-5 a kg at which the farmer sells potatoes in the wholesale market, to the final sale price of Rs10-12, potato prices rise by 100% or more.
Glut or not, the rise in price at various points, including commission agent, transportation cost, labour charges and retailers’ margin, make potatoes 100% more expensive for the end-user.
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