News on The Potato Supply Chain from India

Potato growers were holding a demonstration over the non-availability of space in cold storages even as the district administration claimed that the storages had enough space to accommodate around 32,000 quintals of potatoes. Farmers are already force...

Post-harvest, potato prices have gone down sharply this year in the main growing areas, especially in West Bengal. The price of the ‘Jyoti’ variety procured directly from the farmers is currently ruling at around Rs 100 per 50-kg packet, down from Rs 1...

The growth of food processing sector has nearly doubled to 13.7 per cent during the last four years, Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahai said. "The food processing sector growth has reached the double digit at 13.7...

Jang Bahadur Singh Sangha, a local farmer who has done his MSc in plant physiology and pathology from Cornell University in the United States, with a specialisation in potato seed, has set up a laboratory in the farms owned by his father, and has bee...

Millions of consumers in India munch McDonald's French fry, also called Mac Fry, every day. But many of them might not know that the potato they relish comes from Gujarat, thanks to an initiative by the Indian subsidiary of US multinational McCain Food...

Potato cultivators in north Dinajpur district are facing a crisis to preserve their crops due to absence of adequate number of cold storages in the district. Having found no space to preserve they are being compelled to sell their crops in the market a...

Pepsico India Holdings Pvt Ltd plans to procure at least 30,000 tonne of potato from West Bengal by 2010 for Fritolay, the food division of the company. At present, the company procures 12,000 tonne potato from the state

Gujarat, once known for its huge production of banana, is expected to have a bumper potato yield this year. While the crop is expected to have poor harvest in eastern part of the country, the situation is opposite in Gujarat. Potato production is incre...

Potato futures rose on Thursday on speculation a persistent cold wave in the northern region could hurt output, analysts said. On the Multi Commodity Exchange of India, potato futures rose more than 1 per cent, with the most active March contract at Rs...

McDonald’s will set up a food processing unit in Haryana or Punjab with an investment of Rs 100 crore to complement its sourcing activities in the local markets. “We are in discussion with both Punjab and Haryana for opening a food processing plant, wh...

India’s potato production in 2007-08 is likely to grow by half its earlier estimate on account of crop damage due to a cold wave in the north, home to the biggest producing regions, a senior official said. “Area has increased in almost all major produc...

West Bengal farmers are now on a track to tap profit from potato cultivation and even started several organised potato processing unit in the state. It seemed to them very profitable compared to any other crop within their limit. According to a recent ...

To get rid of surplus potato production in the state, the West Bengal government is getting its act in place to explore possibilities of exporting table potatoes to Bangladesh, Malaysia and Thailand which are deficient in meeting their internal demands...

Indian potato is all set to reach out to 80 countries, mostly in Europe, thanks to Indian farmers getting their produce certified by a global agency. Export prospects of potato are looking up with farmers taking Global GAP Certification for the product...

Frost, triggered by intense cold wave conditions in the northern region, have hit the potato crop in Punjab damaging mainly the late sown crop. Experts fear that almost 15 to 20 per cent of the crop at several potato fields in Jalandhar, Kapurthala an...

With new arrivals at mandis across the country, the potato prices have hit the rock bottom during the past one month.According to traders, wholesale prices of potato came down by an average 40-50 per cent in various mandis over the last one month.At Fa...

Late blight, a fungal disease that affects potato crop, has returned to haunt farmers here and the Punjab Agricultural University has issued an alert to growers after coming across fresh infections in a farm in Hoshiarpur district. "We have foun...

Last week I received more information on one of the two (!) large potato conferences next year in India, so I decided this was a good time to pay attention to the fast changes in the Indian Potato Processing industry.