58th Annual General Meeting organized by West Bengal Cold Storage Association

Kolkata, twelfth February, 2023: West Bengal Cold Storage Association is the one lively Association of Cold Storages in West Bengal. This 12 months the 58th Annual General Meeting was held at The Almond, Sector V, Salt Lake.

This Annual General assembly was inaugurated by the Chief Guest – Sri. Becharam Manna, Hon’ble MIC Department of Agricultural Marketing Govt of WB; Dr. Pradip Kumar Mazumdar, Hon’ble MIC Department of Panchayat & Rural Development, Govt of WB; Dr. A Subbiah, Principal Secretary Department of Agriculture Marketing Govt of WB; Sri. Kanailal Hansda, Joint Director of Agricultural Marketing Govt of WB; Sri. Rajesh Kumar Bansal, President of West Bengal Cold Storage Association; Sri. Sunil Kumar Rana, Vice President of West Bengal Cold Storage Association; Sri Patit Paban De, Past President of WBCSA.

On this event, Sri. Rajesh Kumar Bansal, President of West Bengal Cold Storage Association highlighted, “The space beneath cultivation of potato within the present season is on the rise and the chilly storage models will proceed to play a pivotal function in advertising the produce. Sluggish launch of preserved inventory resulted in disproportionate accumulation as 60% of the preserved inventory remained within the chilly storages throughout Sep-Oct 2022 and the market worth crashed closely because the Puja festivals. Situation grew to become so grave that regardless of extension of storage interval past thirtieth November greater than 20% inventory remained undelivered after thirty first December’22. He estimated manufacturing of round 115 lakh ton potato within the present season; home consumption in West Bengal being 65 lakh ton the stability inventory wanted to be marketed outdoors the state. To guarantee balanced market situation and common restoration of refinance loans, he requested the authorities to border a system for launch of the saved inventory at an uniform fee of 12% in every month in the course of the unloading interval. He advisable assortment and evaluation of pan India complete knowledge on cultivation, harvesting, storage & advertising for formulation of needed motion plan and monitoring the inventory scenario on an actual time foundation.”

Govt. initiative was steered for farmers to take care of correct grading, curing and assortment & packing in high quality Leyno luggage of weight 55 grams (minimal) for storable potato; standardization on the above was additionally steered. Since extension of storage interval past November has grow to be widespread expertise for nearly yearly it was requested by him that the quantum of further hire for prolonged storage interval must be included within the notification for periodical hire Revision.

In view of the periodical rise in enter price and price of capital for chilly storages, demand was positioned for elevating chilly storage hire at par with hire in different potato producing states the place present fee is Rs.230/- to Rs.270/- per quintal. Further, it was steered that chilly storage hire calculation needs to be primarily based on 85% storage capability as an alternative of 100% storage capability as utilization of 100% capability isn’t skilled.

It was steered that discussions on evaluation of Cold Storage Act 1966 ought to embody:

Duties of hirers in respect of the standard of storable potatoes.
Simplification of course of to be noticed for disposal of potato inventory left in retailer models after the tip of storage season.
Extension of validity of chilly storage license to 5 years.
Minimum quantity of inventory required within the chilly storage chamber for operating the plant.
He insisted that present storage capability provided by the shop models in West Bengal is adequate for preservation of potato produced within the state and in view of discount in demand for produce of West Bengal in states like Jharkhand & Bihar, out there storage capability of the state must be restricted to the present stage for a minimum of 5 years. He additionally laid particular emphasis on industry-friendly enterprise surroundings within the state and follow of simplified Rules & Regulations, Time-bound actions, Fair & logical dealing of points regarding conduct of enterprise.