Potatoes to be exported from India to Russia

A clutch of Punjab-based potato farmers are in the final stages of signing a deal with Russian traders for exporting close to 10,000 tonnes of the crop to Russia for the first time.

'We are likely to finalise the deal within a day or two with Russian traders who have approached us for supply of potato crop to Russia,' a progressive potato grower from Jalandhar district, who has been approached for the supply of crop, said on condition of anonymity.

'Their (Russian traders) requirement is about one lakh tonnes of potato from Punjab but we could not meet this huge requirement. We could supply only 10,000 tonnes of crop and they will have to source crop from the open market,' he said.

What led Russian traders to source potato from Punjab was the low rate of the crop and its sufficient availability in view of the ongoing harvesting in the state.