Potato News from Asia

Minister for Fertiliser and Chemicals Ram Vilas Paswan Wednesday said the central government has plans to set up a potato chips unit in Himachal Pradesh. “The central government is contemplating to set up a chips production factory in Kangra district a...

Total 2007 food service revenues were about USD 19.5 billion. The tourism industry is optimistic about the 2008 season and based on early reservation numbers the Mediterranean Touristic Hotel Association predic ts a 5 to 10 percent increase in 2008 rev...

Farmers of the potato belt in Uttar Pradesh now see hope in PepsiCo. The company has started procuring a specific breed of potato from farmers at Rs 825 a quintal (100 kg) while the market is not fetching a price of even Rs 300 per quintal. The company...

On July 16, farmer Sonam Tshering, 55, from Paro, went down to Phuentsholing with 23 sacks of potato, optimistic of earning a good sum. He thought of how he would be able to meet the expenses of his two sons, both monks at Ramjam Rinpoche dratshang in ...

Angry farmers in the Indian state of West Bengal have been dumping their potato crop on roads in protest against poor prices. Farmers say they are selling at a loss because a bumper crop and lack of storage facilities has led to a dramatic fall in pr...

The snack food market in India is $3 billion;with the organized segment accounting for almost half of the market share and growing at rate of 15 to 20 percent per year.However, the imported snack food market is growing but small ($30 million) due to hi...

At a time when potato farmers in West Bengal are forced to sell their produce at a huge discount owing to a bumper potato production of 88 lakh tonne this year, they found by their side not only the state government, but also the cold storage owners. T...

This Gain report summarizes palm oil exports from Malaysia by country of destination, from the World Trade Atlas based on data from the Dept. of Statistics in Kuala Lumpur.For January to March, 2008, total palm oil exports from Malaysia were 3.28 MMT.

KFC Holdings (M) Bhd (KFCH) is expanding its chain of restaurants by another 12 to 15 outlets this year and diversifying its product offerings in a bid to grow sales under more challenging operating conditions. Managing director Jamaludin Md Ali said t...

Major Japanese snack food maker Calbee Foods Co. said Thursday that it will raise prices of its mainstay products as early as November.The markup on the products, which include potato chips and "Kappa Ebisen"snacks, reflects surging prices of...

In a nation that has taken pride in the delicacy and diversity of a cuisine which dates back thousands of years, it is astonishing that foreign fast food chains like Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) and McDonald's have dominated the fast food industry in ...

To help poor Afghani villagers make money on potatoes instead of opium poppies, Idaho farmer Pat Rowe borrowed a root cellar design common across his home state's famous potato country in the 1930s and 1940s. The 68-year-old Rowe, whose family raises...

Thousands of families — around five lakh (500.000) people — in Ranchi, Lohardaga, Ramgarh, Jamshedpur, Koderma, Deoghar, Dumka, Bokaro, Gumla and Hazaribagh for the past three years have actively joined the supply chain of Pepsico Ltd, the MNC (Multina...

There's no escaping rising inflation - signs of it are everywhere. The latest sign could be in your meal at a fast-food outlet. McDonald's, the world's largest fast food chain, yesterday raised its prices in China, for the second time this year, fo...

McDonald's, a global fast food giant, on Thursday opened its first "Drive Thru'' outlet at a HPCL retail outlet in the city. As part of its strategic tie-up with HPCL to combine fast-food outlets with gas stations, McDonald's launched a full scal...

About 50 farmers from different districts in Gujarat have pooled in Rs 1 lakh each to launch their own company to export commodities like potatoes, groundnut, cotton, mangoes etc. KP Agri International Pvt Ltd aims to export agri-commodities to foreign...

Buoyed by the growing demand of its snacks, Pepsico India Holdings is increasing production across its various plants by one third of its current capacity in India in the next 18 months. "There has been a growing demand for our products and we wil...

The Baguio National Crop and Research and Development Center (BNCRDC) of the Bureau of Plant Industry (BPI) is waging a war against the two principal enemies of potato farmers - bacterial wilt and potato cyst nematode.   Jesus Aspuria, BPI-BNCRDC chie...