According to him, the exports would further increase due to lower transit time within Asia, lower capital employment by customer, global quality standards and consistency in price.

As a result of several steps taken to double the income of farmers over the past few years, India has emerged as one of the top three nations in production of certain food grains and food products, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his video conferencing address at Global Potato Conclave 2020 held at Gandhinagar.

The Prime Minister said that a new record was also created in the beginning of 2020 by transferring Rs 12,000 crore to the accounts of six lakh farmers across the country. “The government is giving encouragement to food processing industry. We have allowed 100% FDI in the sector and also encouraged food value chain development through Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana,” said Modi and also emphasis on using latest technology like Artificial Intelligence, Blockchain, Drone, among others, to address various problems related to agriculture and related activities.

Meanwhile, during a plenary session on value addition and storage management, experts said that due to increasing awareness among farmers to grow processed varieties of potatoes, India is gradually emerging as a leading exporter of frozen potato food items in Asia.

Till 2007, India was importer of frozen potato food items including that of French fries, but systematic development of potato value chain right from farming to post harvest handling, India became exporter in the segment by 2015 and exported around 5,000 MT, said Haresh Karamchandani, CEO of Gujarat-based HyFun Foods during panel discussion, adding that since then, India’s export is continuously increasing and by the end of 2019, it had reached up to 30,000 MT.

According to him, the exports would further increase due to lower transit time within Asia, lower capital employment by customer, global quality standards and consistency in price.

Not only exports but domestic demand for frozen potato food items is also augmenting and reached around 75,000 MT.

Domestic demand would further increase due to urbanisation, addition of more number of nuclear families and working women and increase in disposable income among families, he added. ITC’s chief executive for Fresh F&V & Frozen business, Sachin Madan claimed that market size of potato and its value chain in India has exceeded `50,000 crore and still has the potential to go farther.

“For the purpose, we need to look beyond Gujarat. Already, Gujarat is having very good infrastructure for potato value chain, but states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal also need to come up. Lady Rosetta variety of seed has changed the fortune of Gujarat’s farmers, such revolution needs to take place in other major potato growing states to encourage value addition in potato crop,” said Madan.

Gujarat chief minister Vijay Rupani claimed that due to efforts of his government cold storage capacity of Gujarat has reached 23 lakh MT which is highest in the country.