Bangladesh: Potato growers suffer from lack of gov’t. incentives

While potatoes usually play a significant role in the export market of Bangladesh, this season the Bangladeshi potato sector has been in a rut. According to Saifur Rahman of the export company Friends Eximp Enterprise, the current negative trend is related to the lack of incentives from the Bangladeshi government. “Last year, the government gave potato growers a 20% incentive for their production. This year, that percentage has been lowered to only 10%. Because of that, we can’t compete on the world market for potatoes. As we can’t cover our costs with the current prices in the market, most companies won’t export potatoes.” The potato sector of Bangladesh also had to deal with adverse weather, which has caused delays for the potato harvest. The main problem is however the lack of funding from the government. More