News on Food Trends from India

PepsiCo has sued three potato farmers in Gujarat complaining that they have been illegally growing and selling a variety of potato exclusively registered to Pepsico for the use of producing its Lays potato chips.

Kellogg's, the world's second-largest snack foods company, is exploring options to acquire a stake in India's snack manufacturer Haldiram's. This could be one of the biggest deals involving an Indian consumer brand.

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

Snacks and beverages manufacturer PepsiCo plans to invest $5 million by 2020 to expand its sustainable farming programme in India.

Despite being an early bird in branded packaged snacks, PepsiCo India faces tough competition in this category. The company bets on its Kurkure brand combined with local flavors to keep up with the competition.

A regular day in an Indian household is incomplete without the humble potato being part of at least one meal. It could be the filling in samosas, the centre of our vada pavs or the topping on morning poha.

In a bid to rein in prices of potatoes, the government of the Indian State Odisha has imposed stock holding limits on this Indian staple.

Food Processing Industries Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the Indian federal government was planning to draw a sustainable roadmap to keep soaring prices of staples tomato, onion and potato under control.

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.

Farmers in India can expect higher yields and profits with the release of a new potato variety, Kufri Lima, developed by the International Potato Center (CIP) and the Central Potato Research Institute (CPRI)

In India, the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) is starting the production of frozen French Fries in October of this year. They have set up shop in North Gujarat, close to McCain Foods India and Hyfun Frozen Foods

The initial public offer (IPO) of Prataap Snacks received bids for 17.19 crore shares, data on the National Stock Exchange of India (NSE) website showed. The IPO was oversubscribed 47.39 times.

Prataap Snacks initial share sale offer was oversubscribed 2.17 times on the second day of bidding on Monday, with still another day to go.

In Chennai, India, equipment manufacturer Heat and Control has opened a production facility with a manufacturing area of over 11,800m2 making it one of the company’s largest facilities around the world.

FMCG major ITC will continue diversification into new areas with agri business set to play a key role, as part of its 'India First' strategy under which it aims to create 10 million sustainable livelihoods by 2030, according to company CEO and Executive Director Sanjiv Puri.

The Potato Centre of Excellence, Punjab’s only centre of its kind being set up at Dhogri village in Jalandhar, has not been completed yet, though the deadline for the project was 2015.

Lack of rain has left potato growers of Hassan - a district in the Southern Indian state of Karnataka in distress.

To boost research in potato production a new Potato Technology Centre was inaugurated in Haryana, India.