The India-based Seed Potato Company Utkal Tubers has Ambitious Plans

Utkal Tubers is a seed potato seed company focused on development of high yielding disease resistant varieties. The company is backed by Private Equity funds Zephyr and CapaAleph, and Ireland-based potato group IPM.

The company distributes high quality seed potato across India. These seed potatoes are developed in-house through research and development with an exclusive licensing arrangement with one of the leading potato seed companies globally – the Ireland based potato company IPM.

IPM provides Utkal access to high yield and disease resistant potato varieties suitable for India.

During the current farming season, Utkal has performed contract and corporate farming operations on 800 Acres of land. The company plans to sell 8500 metric tons of seed potato in the year 2021.

Utkal Tubers helps farmers improve yield and productivity. The company`s lab to land innovation has helped in developing disease resistant high yielding potato seeds

The company plans to increase production by 50% year on year for the next 5 years.

In the last five years the company Utkal - incubated in 2016 - has built a strong team to cater to the seed potato requirements of the major markets in the country. The current management team, led by Mr Sanjay Mahant has over 75 years of strong experience in building seed and potato business in India.

The company has its own Research and Development facilities in Karnataka and Gujarat for minituber production using Aeroponics and Cocopeat technologies. The company operates using a mixture of corporate and contract farming models for its seed multiplication programme.

For early generation seed potatoes, the company does corporate farming on its land in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat. Contract farming is used for later generations of seed potato multiplication across Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat.

Utkal sales and marketing teams are distributed across the major potato markets in India. The company also has forward contracts signed with major potato processors.

Potatoes are popular and widely consumed throughout India. Potato accounts for the largest share of consumer spend on vegetables in the country. Potato consumption per capita is increasing in India, primarily in the form of table potatoes and processed chips. Increasing per capita potato consumption is expected to drive demand for seed potatoes.

Utkal Tubers has a strong distribution network across the country, resulting in premium price and regular demand. Their brand is established in market due to high quality of seed and smooth operation of logistics.

They will introduce IPM varieties in 2023 for superior quality, high yield, disease resistant as compared to the existing market variety.

Company`s CEO Mr Sanjay Mahant vision is to produce 25,000 - 30,000 metric tons of seed potato by 2024-2025 and serve high yield, disease resistant, better quality seed potatoes to the potato farmers in India.