India: Banas Dairy to Open Potato Processing Unit

Given a growing demand for potato-based products across the world, Indian company Banas Dairy announced its intention to establish a Rs 100-crore (USD13m) potato processing unit in North Gujarat, to take on big players in the field, reports Indian Express. The unit, that will have an annual capacity to process 50,000 metric tons of potatoes, will focus on producing French fries and 12 other potato products for both domestic and international markets in the South-East Asia.

The manufacturing unit is being set up near Diyodar in Banaskantha district of North Gujarat, which is a hub for potato farmers. “Not only is North Gujarat a potato growing region, there is a lot of demand globally for potato products like French fries. We recently, exported some of the products including French fries to Mauritius, Malaysia and Singapore,” said Kamraj Chaudhary, managing director of Banas Dairy. “The civil work for the project has already begun. Machinery for the plant will be imported from Netherlands and we have targeted to begin production by October 2021,” Chaudhary added.

Banas Dairy was founded in 1969 and describes itself as “Asia’s biggest milk producer.”