The federal government is considering to procure considerable quantity of potato in a bid to facilitate potato growers and avoid crisis like situation, it is learnt. Official sources revealed to Business Recorder that an important meeting regarding the current situation about potato export, which is going to start formally in the first week of February, was held. Federal Minister for National Food Security & Research Sahibzada Mehboob Sultan, Advisor to Prime minister on Commerce and Industries Abdul Razak Dawood and Federal Secretary Food Security Hashim Popalzai were present in the meeting along with other senior officials from both the ministries.
Sources said Mehboob Sultan informed the meeting that the ministry was considering all possible options to dispel apprehensions of potato growers and basic focus was to facilitate the potato export. The potato export would start soon with potential increase that year, he added. In the meeting various options were discussed to facilitate the smooth export and address the issues of potato farmers. It was also revealed that the Ministry of National Food Security was setting up a facilitation centre in Okara (Punjab) for the farmers/exporters prior to the start of export.
Popalzai apprised the meeting that the government was negotiating with the stakeholders and different options were being considered. It was proposed in the meeting that the Pakistan Agriculture Storage and Services Corporation (PASSCO) might procure a considerable quantity from the growers to provide relief. The purpose of this would be to facilitate the potato growers and eschew the crisis situation. Federal Minister Mehboob Sultan said the government was negotiating with the provincial agriculture department (s) and there was another option regarding the provision of cold storage facility to the potato growers/farmers by the provincial government. These options are under negotiation and after the deliberations one or both of them will be finalised.
The basic purpose for the procurement of potato by the government is to directly benefit the growers and the Federal Minister for Food Security and Research assured that there should not be any uncertainty among them as efforts were targeted towards the ultimate benefit of the farmers. The government is also negotiating for reduction of Afghan tax on potato to facilitate the potato growers. About 300,000 to 400,000 tonnes potatoes are exported every year. The export of potato to Afghanistan has already been started and around 25 trucks have reached Kabul so far. Briefing the meeting, the officials of Ministry of National Food Security said they were in liaison with provincial agriculture departments as well. The meeting was further informed that there was no tax imposed on the export of potato and for the purpose Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) had been consulted to facilitate the export of potato.
The issue of Afghan duty (as Afghanistan is the route through which it is exported to other states), which has been imposed since 2015 and is around 25 percent, was also taken into account. The negotiations for decrease in the said duty are underway through diplomatic channels, which would help the farmers and exporters.
The export of potato formally starts in the last week of January every year and a substantial increase is expected in export this year. The potato from Pakistan is exported to Russia, Malaysia, Gulf countries and Sri Lanka. China and Tajikistan are expected to get considerable share of potato export from Pakistan. China, as was told by its ambassador last week, is quite keen in buying Pakistani potato.
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