West Bengal Cold Storage Association is the only active Association of Cold Storages in West Bengal. The 60th Annual General Meeting was held today at Swabhumi Heritage, Kolkata which was attended by: Sri. Sunil Kumar Rana, President of WBCSA; Sri. Subhajit Saha, Vice President of WBCSA; Sri. Rajesh Kumar Bansal, Ex-President of WBCSA; Sri. Patit Paban De, Sri. Tarun Kanti Ghosh, Sri. Gobind Kajaria, Past Presidents of WBCSA; Sri. Dilip Chatterjee, Sri. Kaushik Kundu, Sri. Pradip Lodha, Chairman of District Committees of WBCSA & many other eminent personalities.
On this occasion, Sri. Sunil Kumar Rana, President of West Bengal Cold Storage Association highlighted, “Considerable enthusiasm is observed among Potato growers and around 5.10 lakh hectare land has been cultivated in the current season. He estimated production of around 135-140 lakh ton potato in the current season; domestic consumption in West Bengal being 65 lakh ton, the balance stock need to be marketed outside the state. To ensure steady price and regular supply of potato in the market he requested the authorities to frame a system for release of the stored stock at a uniform rate of 12% each month during the unloading period. He recommended collection and analysis of Pan India comprehensive data on cultivation, harvesting, storage & marketing for formulation of necessary action plan and monitoring the stock situation on a real time basis.”
Govt. initiative was suggested for farmers to maintain proper grading, curing and assortment; standardization on the above was also suggested. Since extension of storage period beyond November has become common experience for almost every year it was requested by him that the quantum of additional rent for extended storage period need to be included in the notification for periodical rent Revision.
In view of the periodical rise in input cost and cost of capital for cold storages, demand was placed for raising cold storage rent at par with rent in other potato producing states where current rate is Rs. 230/- to Rs.270/- per quintal. He mentioned that cold storage rent was not revised by the Govt. despite the Expert Committee recommendation for revision of cold storage rent to Rs. 190 & Rs. 194 for South & North Bengal respectively. But till the last 4 years rent is Rs. 168 & Rs. 172. He apprehended that operation of cold storages 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 Bank. 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.
