Meeting on cold storage rent in Thakurgaon postponed

The Thakurgaon administration postponed the meeting scheduled to be held today with the potato growers, traders and cold storage owners to fix cold storage rents.

The meeting will be held on June 15, the local administration said today.

Amid protests on high storage rent, Thakurgaon Deputy Commissioner Md Mahbubur Rahman called the meeting to sit with the stakeholders.

Hasibul Islam, general secretary of Potato Growers and Traders Welfare Association of Thakurgaon, said they have been demanding a cut in storage rents for several weeks.

Local growers normally start releasing potatoes from the cold storages from the middle of May, he said.

"Rents are charged when potatoes are released from the cold storages. But the rent is so high now that the growers refrained from releasing potatoes."

The growers will incur losses in multiple ways because of the delay in releasing the stored potatoes, he said.

Local prices will fall when potatoes from other districts will start entering Thakurgaon and when the winter variety will appear, he said.

The Thakurgaon administration should take steps immediately to lower the cold storage rents, he said.