Potatoes
“All you need for varities of meal”
Potatoes are now one of the most promising crops in Bangladesh. The production income of this crop in the short term is several times higher than other crops. Potatoes are grown on 460,000 hectares of land in Bangladesh. This land has produced about 1 crore 11 lakh 24 thousand 700 tons of potatoes in the current financial year. At present, the domestic demand of potatoes in the country is 7.5 to 8 million tons. About 3 million tons of potatoes are produced annually in the country, more than the demand. Bangladesh ranks seventh in potato production in the world and third in Asia. Potatoes are the country’s only surplus crop among food commodities. High quality potatoes of Bangladesh are produced in Bogra, Rangpur, Thakurgaon, Nilphamari, Dinajpur and Sherpur district. The government has set a target to produce potatoes of 120,000 tons in 2023, 180,000 tons in 2024 and 250,000 tons in 2025.
The best time to export potatoes is from February to March, as importers prefer fresh potatoes to frozen potatoes. Within a few days after harvesting, some deformations in the shape of the potato occur, especially when frozen potatoes are stored below certain temperatures, resulting in increased sweetness and deterioration of other qualities through chemical changes.
Among the potatoes that are being exported from Bangladesh are Sunshine, Santana, Granola, Laura, Alouette and Diamond varieties of potatoes. Along with other varieties, new potato varieties such as Edition, Bari 40, Bari 41, Rashida, Carola, are being cultivated more. High yielding potato varieties include Musica, Astic, Cardinal, Rosetta, Carriage and Valencia. Sources of Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation said that there is a high demand for new and large varieties of potatoes abroad.
Bangladesh’s high quality potatoes are being commercially exported to Malaysia, Indonesia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Myanmar, United Arab Emirates, Thailand, Brunei, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Jordan and Lebanon. Exports of potatoes to Russia, Japan, Fiji and Vietnam are beginning soon. However, the most demand for this potato is in Malaysia. Bangladesh produced 11 million tons of potatoes in 2022. Of this, 0.8 million tons of potatoes were exported. It is the highest in Asia after China and India. More than one third of the total exported potatoes are sent to Malaysia, those are mostly Diamond and Cardinal varieties of potatoes. In Singapore, Malaysia and Sri Lanka, the granule variety of potato is highly valued. Soft skinned potatoes weighing 100 gm. to 150 gram and size 40 to 60 mm with bright colour and shallow eyed tuber and longer dormancy are more suitable for export.
Bangladesh’s potatoes are having high growing demand in the international markets. A Japanese company has shown keen interest in processing and importing the Valencia variety of potatoes produced in Bangladesh. The Valencia variety imported from the Netherlands has been popularized in the country by ACI Company. The Japanese company and ACI are jointly setting up a potato processing plant in Bangladesh.
The government is giving more importance to the export of potatoes. BADC has already developed 10 improved varieties of potato suitable for export. Among them, BADC Potato-1 (Sunshine), BADC Potato-3 (Santana), BADC Potato-7 (Queen any) and BADC Potato-8 (Lebela) are notable. BADC’s Sunshine Potatoes are promising.
For the last few years, potato producers/farmers have been trained on safe and healthy cultivation and processing principles to produce export-quality potatoes by FAO. FAO is working with the government to increase exports of staple crops, including potatoes, as part of a long-term vision to transform the country’s agricultural sector. Bangladeshi potato producers are now fully equipped and capable to meet growing international demand in a competitive market.