News on The Potato Supply Chain from India

July 24, 2009

West Bengal state government potato retail counters not a success

Within days of opening shop, the state government’s potato retail counters have come a cropper, with buyers not willing to pay Rs 13 per kg for rotten potatoes when good quality ones are available in the open market for Rs 15 per kg. The result: instea...

July 14, 2009

Potato is now essential commodity in West Bengal

West Bengal government Tuesday included potato under the essential commodities category to prevent its hoarding and arrest its rising prices, state Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta said. The government issued a notification under the West Bengal Preventi...

July 13, 2009

El Niño is back, bringing droughts, floods, crop failures and social unrest

El Niño, the warming of the Pacific Ocean that creates chaos in global weather patterns, is on its way back, threatening droughts, floods, crop failure and social unrest. The implications are severe, not just for climate but for the effects on food, w...

July 13, 2009

Rising potato price eats into profit margins of Indian Potato chips manufacturers

A sudden shortage of potatoes accompanied by sharply higher prices is eroding profit margins for large potato wafer brands and could force several smaller ones to temporarily exit the snack foods market. Prices of chipping potatoes used to make wafers ...

July 09, 2009

West Bengal government to sell potatoes

Following a steep rise in prices of potatoes, the West Bengal government Thursday announced that it will now sell the tubers at Rs.13 per kg in the markets in and around Kolkata. "The government will directly buy potatoes from the cold storages i...

June 22, 2009

Frito-Lay India builds warehouse for potato storage in West Bengal

Frito-lay India has decided to set up a state-of-the-art warehouse for storage of potato.“Sourcing chip-grade potatoes remains a challenge. We are establishing a state-of-the-art warehouse, a first in India, near our manufacturing facility in West Beng...

June 16, 2009

Potato futures remain up on increased demand

Potato futures gained 0.75 per cent in early trade on the Multi Commodity Exchange on Tuesday, maintaining its rising streak for the fourth day in a row, following restricted arrivals and a good demand in the physical markets.

June 14, 2009

Karnataka farmers shy away from potatoes in fear of blight

Owing to the fear of blight, many farmers are shying away from cultivating potato. Last year, potato was grown on 50,000 hectares of land in the district, but the crop on 35,000 hectares was affected by blight, and farmers lost Rs. 300 crore as a res...

April 16, 2009

FMC allays fears on rising potato prices

Commodity futures market regulator Forward Markets Commission (FMC) is confident that the skew between spot and futures prices in potato will cease once the diversion from physical markets to cold storage reverses. The regulator had recently asked MCX ...

April 11, 2009

Potato Prices in Uttar Pradesh double in a week

Potato, the crop which was dumped in fields to rot last year due to over-production has suddenly scaled record heights this season. The increased demand and rampant hoarding by traders has propelled the prices by over 100 per cent over last week.The cr...

April 10, 2009

Potato Processing Zone to boost tourism for Agra (India)?

Agra is globally known for being the city where one of the seven wonders of the world, Taj is situated. But what has Agra to do with the Potato? A lot, according to a study conducted by the marketing department of Indian Institute of Management, Luckno...

April 10, 2009

Potato prices double in New Delhi, up in other places

Potato prices have shot up across India and in the northern parts of the country it has almost doubled in the last one month owing to higher demand from the four major producing states, where crops were damaged due to high temperature. In the local re...

Kurkure - extruded snack by Frito-Lay /Pepsico - highly popular in India

April 06, 2009

Processing industry in India to consume 10% of potato output by 2010-11

India's potato production has seen a phenomenal increase since the 1950s, mainly due to strong demand from the processing industry and remunerative returns.

March 27, 2009

Punjab faces potato glut again

Crop diversification — from conventional wheat and paddy crop to potato — hasn’t proved to be a great idea in Punjab. A glut of potato has again hit this season — the produce can be seen dumped on roadsides — with the growers now contemplating reducing...

March 05, 2009

Farm level puffed potato cube production project near Mumbai

Throughout the last two years, CTI volunteers Shiv Murty, Steve Laible, and Nancy Laible have been in contact with Prof. Narendra Shah at the Center for Technology Alternatives for Rural Areas (CTARA) at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bomba...

February 26, 2009

Punjab: 3000 MT of potatoes to be exported to Sri Lanka & Dubai

Punjab Cooperation Minister Captain Kanwaljit on Thursday revealed that with the facilitation of Markfed, Punjab 3000 Metric Tonne of potatoes would be exported to Sri Lanka and Dubai. Due to bumper crop of potato this year, farmers were finding it ve...

February 12, 2009

Potato production in West Bengal may dip 30% due to late blight

Potato production in West Bengal is likely to be 30 per cent less than the previous year on account of late blight disease.Naren De, West Bengal agriculture minister said at a seminar organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) that potato ...

February 09, 2009

Punjab to export 3,000 tonne potato to Middle East

Faced with crash in potato prices due to bumper crop in Punjab, the state sovernment has decided to export 3,000 tonne of potato to the Middle East besides selling another 2 lakh tonne to Maharashtra, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and...