Potato Spot gained 0.77% while futures closed 1.83% lower on Monday on account of long liquidation at higher levels and probe by FMC on account of sharp rise in the prices of potato futures over the last couple of weeks as well as long.
Demand can be seen at lower levels as traders anticipate the output to be lower than the government’s estimates.
Production Scenario
The cold storages are said to be full to the extent of 95% of their capacity. The market participants expected the production to cross last year’s levels, but now they expect the production to fall lower than last year.
According to National Horticultural Research and Development Foundation (NHRDF), potato output in the season 2011-12, is estimated higher at 43.6 mn tn compared to 40 mn tn last year.
However, markets are expecting further decline in output due to late blight disease by 20%.
The output in UP and West Bengal, the two biggest potato-growing states is expected to be lower at 12.8 mn tn (13.6 mn tn in 2011) and 10-15% (13.3 mn tn in 2011) respectively.