Potato exports from Bangladesh are picking up after last fiscal year's unusual slump, as a sharp drop in domestic prices provides hope that they could reach levels of the past decade or so.

In the past nine years since FY16, Bangladesh annually exported around 50,000 tonnes of potatoes on average, as per the Department of Agricultural Extension (DAE).

However, exports dropped to 12,112 tonnes last fiscal year.

Yet, in the first seven months of the current fiscal year, they have already reached 11,055 tonnes, with the top destinations being Malaysia, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Nepal, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Bahrain, Kuwait, Sri Lanka, Oman, Canada, and the Maldives.

The rising exports will bring some relief to farmers in major potato-growing regions, who have been incurring losses while harvests run in full swing on a record acreage.

Several farmers in Rangpur, Dinajpur, Thakurgaon, Bogura, and Joypurhat said the popular vegetable was selling for Tk 11 per kilogramme (kg), whereas their production cost was around Tk 15 per kg.

The starchy vegetable was cultivated on a record 5.24 lakh hectares of land this fiscal year, up 15 percent year-on-year, propelled by prices reaching as high as Tk 80 per kg last November.

This fiscal year, total production is expected to reach 1.20 crore tonnes, according to the Bangladesh Cold Storage Association, a major player in the local supply chain.

The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics has a more moderate estimate of 1.06 crore tonnes.

Last fiscal year, 1.09 crore tonnes were produced, according to DAE data, surpassing the country's annual demand of around 90 lakh tonnes.

Exports are helping recover costs as local sales are not worthwhile, said Abdul Baset, a farmer from Joypurhat who has shipped over 650 tonnes abroad and has several more orders.

Low market prices have also prompted exporter Rashed Shamim Chowdhury to raise his shipment target to 3,000 tonnes this fiscal year from only 600 tonnes last year.

"Last season, I bought potatoes at Tk 25 to Tk 32 per kg. But this season, I am buying them at Tk 18 to Tk 20 per kg," he said.

Similarly, another exporter, Nazim Uddin, hopes to send off 50 containers, each of which can hold 25,000 kg. Last year, he shipped only seven containers.

The government is working on ways to support farmers with storage and exports, Mohammad Emdad Ullah Mian, secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture, told The Daily Star.

Syed Md Rafiqul Amin, managing director of the ministry's Horticulture Export Development Foundation, or Hortex Foundation, said they were connecting farmers with exporters.

Both sides are receiving a good response, he added.

Bangladesh's potato exports began in 1999, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization, though only a small amount was exported at that time.