news desk: Potato farmers and traders in Dinajpur and its neighbouring districts, including Thakurgaon and Panchagarh, are suffering serious losses for the second year in a row due to poor market prices for the tuber crop. Here, a worker at Railbazarhat in Dinajpur town is seen packing potatoes into a sack after they remained unsold. PHOTO: KONGKON KARMAKER
Md Shafiqul Islam, a potato trader in Dinajpur, kept around 2,000 bags of potatoes in cold storage this year in hopes of recovering his losses from the previous season.

However, he now finds himself deeper in the hole as current market prices for the spud have dipped below the previous levels.

So, he has registered losses of Tk 7 lakh so far this season while it was Tk 4 lakh in 2021.

As prices have been low for the past two years, wholesalers are having to sell the tuber at Tk 17-18 per kilogramme (kg), according to Shafiqul and traders like him in the Railbazarhat area in Dinajpur town.

Shafiqul collected Astrid potatoes from farmers in Dinajpur and its neighbouring districts for Tk 16 per kg between April and May this year.

He stored 2,000 bags of the crop at a local cold storage that charged him Tk 270 for each 50kg bag.

Considering all other expenses, such as transport and labour costs, Shafiqul would need to sell the potatoes for Tk 21 per kg in order to break even.