The 60th Annual General Meeting of the West Bengal Cold Storage Association (WBCSA) was held recently at Swabhumi Heritage, Kolkata.
It was attended by WBCSA president Sunil Kumar Rana, vice president Subhajit Saha, ex-president Rajesh Kumar Bansal, past presidents Patit Paban De, Tarun Kanti Ghosh, Gobind Kajaria as well as Dilip Chatterjee, Kaushik Kundu, Pradip Lodha, chairmen of district committees of WBCSA and others.
Rana said considerable enthusiasm has been observed among potato growers and around 5.10 lakh hectares of land has been cultivated in the current season. He estimated production of around 135-140 lakh tons of potatoes in the current season; domestic consumption in West Bengal is 65 lakh tons, and the balance stock must be marketed outside the state.
To ensure a steady price and regular supply of potatoes in the market, he requested the authorities to frame a system for the release of the stored stock at a uniform rate of 12% each month during the unloading period.
He recommended collection and analysis of a pan-India comprehensive data on cultivation, harvesting, storage & marketing for the formulation of necessary action plans and monitoring the stock situation on a real-time basis.”
Since the extension of the storage period beyond November has become a common experience for almost every year, it was requested that the quantum of additional rent for extended storage period need to be included in the notification for periodical rent revision.
Given the periodical rise in input cost and cost of capital for cold storage, demand was placed for raising cold storage rent on a par with rents in other potato-producing states where the current rate is Rs 230 to Rs 270 per quintal. He mentioned that cold storage rent was not revised by the government despite the Expert Committee’s recommendation for the revision of cold storage rent to Rs 190 & Rs 194 for South & North Bengal, respectively. But for the last four years, the rent is Rs 168 & Rs 172.
He apprehended that the operation of cold storage in the ensuing season may be hampered as store owners are unwilling to operate their units with the present rent structure. For that reason, more than 150 cold storage is NPA in the bbank. Further, it was suggested that cold storage rent calculation should be based on 85% storage capacity instead of 100% storage capacity as utilization of 100% capacity is rarely experienced.
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Naresh Khanna – 10 February 2025
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