Agriculture minister urges to increase potato export

Agriculture Minister Mohammad Abdur Razzaque urged exporters to add value by processing potatoes and get benefitted by exporting it.

He made this comment at a seminar on an overall review on potato exports at agriculture ministry on Wednesday.

He also urged the farmers to cultivate new varieties of potato for French fries and chips.

The agriculture minister said, "Exporters must take steps to follow the observations made by Russia and Indonesia to export potato there and explore new markets. Moreover, we must cultivate new types of potato which are imported by different countries."

"Potato production is growing at a rate of 5.19 percent per year," the minister also said.

"Government withdrew the three-year term ban on export friendly potato seed release, now anyone can cultivate export quality potato," he added.

Speakers at the meeting said, Pakistani exporters are dominating the market because of the low price of their potato. By taking necessary measures including reducing the transportation cost Bangladeshi exporters can also compete with them.

The seminar was chaired by Agriculture Secretary Md Nasiruzzaman. Potato growers, exporters and potato seed growers attended the seminar.