India has emerged as a major exporter of French Fries, which owes much to companies procuring potato directly from growers and deepening farmer engagement.
In 1992, the American processed food company, Lamb Weston, began importing frozen French Fries (FF) for supplying to star hotels in India. The Canadian multinational McCain Foods followed four years later, as sole supplier to McDonald’s that had opened its first restaurant in the country.As consumption of the crispy straight-cut deep-fried potatoes grew, so did imports – crossing 5,000 tonnes annually by the mid-2000s and peaking at 7,863 tonnes in 2010-11 (April-March).But cut to 2023-24, when not only have imports practically ceased, India actually exported 135,877 tones of FF valued at Rs 1,478.73 crore. During April-October 2024, exports were 106,506 tones and worth Rs 1,056.92 crore.
This turnaround – from an importer to an exporter of a highly western fast-food product – has been thanks to opportunity-seizing domestic entrepreneurs, who also harnessed the potential of processing potato varieties suitable for making FF and cultivating them in India.
Indian FF exports are mostly to Southeast Asia (Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam), Middle East (Saudi Arabia, UAE and Oman) and even Japan and Taiwan. “We have become an alternative supplier to these markets that previously imported only from Europe and the US,” noted Haresh Karamchandani, managing director of HyFun Foods Pvt. Ltd.The Ahmedabad-headquartered company accounted for about 85,000 out of the 175,000 tonnes of FF – plus another 8,000 out of 12,000 tonnes of potato hash browns – exported from India in the last calendar year. Other major exporters are Iscon Balaji Foods, Funwave Foods and ChillFill Foods (all from Gujarat) and the US-based J.R. Simplot (it also has a plant in the state).India’s export of FF exceeds its estimated domestic consumption of 100,000 tonnes. Roughly 80% of that comprises sales to businesses (the likes of McDonald’s, KFC and Burger King) at an average Rs 125/kg realisation and the rest to the retail segment at Rs 200/kg, adding to a total market size of Rs 1,400 crore.
Table vs Processing-grade potato
India’s potato production, at 60-odd million tonnes (mt), is next only to China’s 95 mt.Much of that, however, is of normal potatoes used for cooking and home consumption. These “table” varieties contain more moisture and hardly 15-16% dry matter. They also have high reducing sugars (primarily glucose), which accumulate when the harvested tubers are cold-stored at 2-4 degrees Celsius to prevent sprouting. The excess sugar causes darkening of the FF or chips on frying.Processing-grade potato varieties have 20-23% dry matter (enabling higher FF/chips recovery with lower energy and oil consumption) and less than 0.1% reducing sugars on fresh weight basis (resulting in a lighter colour of the finished product).Such varieties include Santana, Innovator, Kennebec, Kufri Frysona and Kufri FryoM for FF, and Lady Rosetta and Kufri Chipsona-1, 2, 3 and 4 for chips. While the breeders of Santana (STET), Innovator (HZPC) and Lady Rosetta (Meijer) are all Netherlands companies, the Kufri varieties have been developed by the government-owned Central Potato Research Institute, Shimla.
Around 1.8 kg of potato is required to produce 1 kg of FF, while it is 1.5 kg for specialty products (like hash browns, burger patties, nuggets and aloo tikki) and 6 kg in dehydrated potato flakes (used by bhujia snack manufacturers such as Bikanervala, Balaji Wafers and Bikaji Foods).
Contract farming model
HyFun Foods, which recorded Rs 1,320 crore sales in 2023-24, has invested nearly Rs 700 crore at its plants in Gujarat’s Mehsana district for producing 17 tonnes/hour of FF, 2.7 tonnes/hour of specialties and 3.6 tonnes/hour of potato flakes.But creating processing capacities is easier than ensuring adequate availability of raw produce for their year-round operation. That’s where contract farming comes in. In the 2023-24 season – potato is sown in October-November and harvested in February-March – HyFun procured 300,000 tonnes from 6,000 farmers in Banaskantha, Sabarkantha, Gandhinagar and Mehsana districts of Gujarat.For the current season, the company plans to buy 400,000 tonnes from 7,250 farmers growing in 30,000 acres of Gujarat, 1,500 acres of Madhya Pradesh and 500 acres of Uttar Pradesh. “Our target is one million tonnes procurement from 20,000 farmers over 80,000 acres by 2027-28,” said S. Soundararadjane, CEO of HyFarm, the farmer connect arm of HyFun.
