Potato News from Asia

July 31, 2008

Stratafoam announces association with Emerald Foam Control

Stratafoam announced this week an association with Emerald Foam Control to introduce their range of foam control additives in India. Among various industries in India that will benefit from this advance chemistry will be the Indian Potato Processing i...

July 30, 2008

Manila Police To Run Cars On Used McDonald's Cooking Oil

Police in Manila are looking to convert their patrol cars to run on a mixture of diesel and used cooking oil from McDonald's (MCD), officials and the company said Tuesday. With oil prices at crippling highs, the project would convert cars in the Makati...

July 23, 2008

Government mulls potato chips unit in Himachal Pradesh

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...

July 22, 2008

GAIN Report: Food Service Industry Turkey 2008

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...

July 21, 2008

Pepsico buys potato in Uttar Pradesh at windfall prices

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...

July 21, 2008

Bhutan potato farmers suffer from potato glut in India

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 ...

July 18, 2008

Bengal farmers in potato protest

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...

July 17, 2008

Snack Food market in India 2008 (GAIN report)

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...

July 16, 2008

Indian Cold storage owners support potato growers

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...

July 11, 2008

Gain Report: Palm Oil Export from Malaysia (Jan-Mar 2008)

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.

July 09, 2008

KFC to open more outlets in Malaysia

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...

July 03, 2008

Calbee to Raise Snack Prices This Autumn

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...

June 30, 2008

Competition gearing up in China's fast food industry

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 ...

June 28, 2008

Idaho Potato Farmer helps Afghans with simple potato storages

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...

June 27, 2008

Kolkata: Half a million people benefit of Potato Farming for Pepsico

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...

June 26, 2008

McDonald's raises prices in China

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...

June 26, 2008

McDonald's opens first 'Drive Thru' outlet in Hyderabad

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...

June 22, 2008

Potato farmers in Gujarat set up export company in response to bumper potato crop.

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...