Potato News from Uttar Pradesh

For the first time, nearly 29 MT of potatoes from Aligarh, Uttar Pradesh, India were exported to Guyana in South America through Farmers Producers Organisation (FPO).

(Indo-)Dutch companies providing solutions from planting material to processing equipment believe there are ways to establish more sustainable value chains, with the help of their technologies.

Potato farmers in the northern parts of the country have suffered heavy crop losses due to ground frost owing to the fall in temperatures in the last week.

In India processing of fruits and vegetables is very poor around only 3-5% were countries like US has 65%, Phillipines 78% and China 23%. Hence, there is a need to enhance the processing of fruits and vegetables.

A program of signing the MoU was organized in the conference hall of Maharana Pratap Horticulture University, Karnal. Siddhi Vinayak Agri Ltd. Hemant Gaur, Managing Director, Vice Chancellor Prof. Samar Singh was welcomed with a bouquet of flowers.

PepsiCo India announced expansion plans for its largest greenfield foods manufacturing plant that produces the immensely popular LAY’S potato chips in Kosi Kalan, Mathura in Uttar Pradesh.

PepsiCo invests USD 110 million in a new potato chip plant in Kosi Kalan, Mathura spanning 29 acres. Pepsico will procure 150,000 tons of potatoes from more than 5,000 local farmers. This investment creates 1,500 jobs.

Potato prices are likely to remain firm this year because of a fall in acreage for the new crop in Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal, the two top producing states.

One of the snack factories of Agro Tech Foods limited, a subsidiary of Conagra Brands in India, was destroyed by fire Sunday.

An ammonia gas leak from a cold storage plant near Agra (UP, India) has caused damage to potato crops across four nearby villages, affecting some 500 farmers in the area.

Last Wednesday in Delhi, potato farmers from Uttar Pradesh handed out free potatoes to the public in protest against the steeply falling prices of the vegetable in Agra.

According to reporting in the India Times, the state government of Uttar Pradesh (India) will soon begin the works of setting up a potato processing unit in the Agra district.

The potato production in India is estimated to be around 47 million tonnes for this crop year, just behind the all-time high witnessed in 2014.

Aiming to boost potato exports, the Indian government is considering identifying ‘pest-free zones’ for the staple in production clusters of the growing states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal.

Indian Potato chip, fries and flake manufacturers have urged the government to waive the 30% import duty on potato to improve supplies and check soaring prices at home.

Farmers and cold storage owners in India (Agra, UP) have lauded the decision to lift the ban on import of seed potatoes.

Vegit, the agro division of the Rs 950 crore Merino Group which offers ready-to-cook packaged foods, plans to raise capacity of potato flakes facility by 50 per cent to meet growing demand.

The government of the Indian State Uttar Pradesh is giving a final shape to its proposed potato development Policy. Uttar Pradesh is looking to augment potato production by 35 percent to achieve 18 million tonnes