The state has less than a month’s stock of potatoes and the new crop is not expected till the last week of December. This emerged on Thursday at meetings held by the two cold storage associations in the state.

“Around 660,000 tonnes of potatoes are left in 400-odd cold storages, half of which are required for seeds, leaving us with 3.3 lakh tonnes. This falls short of Bengal’s monthly consumption of around 4 lakh tonnes. We might face a scarcity from the last week of November till December-end,” said an official of the West Bengal Cold Chain and Cold Storage Owners Welfare Association.

The government, however, insisted that “the people of the state will not suffer”.

“We will buy potatoes from Punjab,” said agricultural marketing minister Mortaza Hossain.

This year, the state’s yield was 55 lakh tonnes, down from 88 lakh tonnes last year. Alarmed at spiralling prices of the crop, the state started buying potatoes from cold stores and selling them in the open market at Rs 13 a kg since July 13. It also bought two train-loads of potatoes from Punjab, which are being sold through the public distribution system.

But the measures failed to arrest the price rise. On Thursday, Chandramukhi potatoes were selling at Rs 23-24 per kg and the Jyoti variety at Rs 19-20 per kg.

“By November 30, cold store owners will have to clear their potato stocks according to the West Bengal Cold Storage Act. After that the situation will depend on how the government bridges the demand-supply gap,” said Gautam Sinha of the West Bengal Cold Storage Association.