Gujarat’s ‘French fry’ industry that no one told you about

What comes to your mind when you hear about Gujarat? The tourism tagline “Kuchh din toh Gujariye Gujarat mein” or the Successful development model envisioned and charted by PM Modi, busy export oriented Ports, Industrial boom and success stories of Cooperatives like AMUL. But what if I tell you that there is one more prominent aspect in which the Gujarat is adding laurels to the nation. It is doing it with the vast production capacity and export of French Fries and a whole lot of other mouth-watering dishes.

The Big Turn Around

Whenever we ponder about our import bill, we want to find alternatives to petroleum products. But we forget the importance of micro management of imports where we can quickly make a turn around and register India’s success story. Evidently, Gujarat has made solid progress and turned the table in frozen potato products. As earlier in 2007, India used to import 6,000 metric tonnes (MT) of French fries. Within eight years India, specifically Gujarat, exported 5,000 MT of French fries. In 2019, with Gujarat being the driving force India, registered a quantum jump. Gujarat exported around 30,000 MT of frozen potato products with French fries accounting for 95% of it.

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By around 2020, the market of Indian frozen potato touched USD 1.10 billion. But the fact is that Gujarat is not a leading producer of potato in the country. It harvests merely 7.42% of the country’s potato production. Yet Gujarat inked success stories in French Fries and other frozen potato markets, as it has processing plants of three companies – McCain Foods, Iscon Balaji Foods and HyFun Foods. These firms are the leading players in production and export of frozen potato products. Additionally, as per ‘Times of India’ they are also the biggest suppliers to prominent burger quick serve restaurant (QSR) chains within India.

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The fast-food chains like McDonald’s, Subway, KFC, Burger King and Dominos, among others have capitalised on India’s love for food. They have contributed significantly in developing the market for frozen potatoes in India. It is interesting to note that frozen potatoes provide the same benefits and taste like a fresh one. Additionally they have a greater shelf-life, thus aiding the market growth.

Cooperatives and need for PPP model

This success story is easier said than done. Behind it lies the toil and sweat of farmers. But, one thing that separates Gujarat’s farmers from the rest of the country is the cooperation between farmers and mutual agreements of farmers with Food based factories/MNCs. As for making export oriented and uniform style of French fries, only two varieties of potatoes – Santana and Frysona are used. Out of the two Santana is considered to be a premium one, and Banaskantha district in Gujarat is India’s largest producer of the Santana variety of potatoes. This highlights the need for cooperation between several silos of the supply chains and farmers, and infusion of capital in agro-processing Infrastructures.

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While the origin story of French fries is disputed, Gujarat with the sheer hard work of farmers, cooperatives and agro-Industrialists has made India’s name in the French fries and other frozen potato products’ export market in the world. This is a massive success story for India, but we must not be content with this victory. We must replicate this success in other spheres of agro-products. Only then will we be able to strengthen our farmers and achieve the aim of doubling their incomes.

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