Explained: How did Gujarat emerge to be India’s biggest exporter of French fries?

New Delhi: Gujarat always seems to hit the headline either for being the homeland of Prime Minister Narendra Modi or being a french fries exporter. It has been just a decade since the state has emerged from being an importer to a french fries exporter. To most of our surprise, Gujarat only harvests 7.42% of the country’s potato production, yet has emerged as the country’s biggest exporter of french fries.

In 2022, Uttar Pradesh has emerged as the major potato-producing state with 31.26% of the production share. This is followed by West Bengal (23.29%), Bihar (13.22%), Gujarat (7.43%), and Madhya Pradesh (6.20%).

Gujarat possesses processing plants of three companies namely McCain Foods, Iscon Balaji Foods, and HyFun Foods which produce frozen potato products and export them. According to the reports by the Times of India, these companies apart from being the leading exporters of frozen potato products, are also the biggest suppliers to the burger quick-serve restaurant (QSR) chains across India.

The fast-food chains in India including McDonald’s, Wendy’s, Subway, KFC, Burger King, and Dominos, among others, significantly contribute to the market of frozen potatoes in India. Notably, frozen potatoes have the same benefits and taste as the fresh ones, besides having a greater shelf-life, which helps in the market growth.

The new dairy complex at Diyodar, Banaskantha district is a greenfield project. It will enable the processing of about 30 lakh litres of milk, produce about 80 tonnes of butter, one lakh litres of ice cream, 20 tonnes of condensed milk and 6 tonnes of chocolate daily.

— ANI (@ANI) April 19, 2022

How the graph increased?

In 2007, India imported around 6,000 metric tonnes (MT) of french fries. However, within a span of eight years, India became an exporter of french fries to other countries. 

The first time India started exporting french fries was in 2015 with annual exports standing at 5,000 MT. Gujarat has emerged to be the main exporter of frozen potato products from India.

In 2019, the country managed to export around 30,000 MT of frozen potatoes, with fries accounting for 95% of the total exports.

By 2020, Modi’s native state took a major leap in exporting. In the same year, the India frozen potato products market attained a value of nearly USD 1.10 billion.

Besides, the market is expected to grow in the forecast period of 2022-2027 at a CAGR of 17% to reach USD 2.82 billion by 2026.

India has invested a total of Rs 1,000 crore in its top three potato processing companies in Gujarat – McCain Foods, Iscon Balaji Foods, and HyFun Foods.

Gujarat was successful in producing 40 lakh MT of potatoes out of the total output of 520 lakh MT collectively from other states. Moreover, it accounted for 1 lakh MT of total potato exports of 3.08 MT.

Two major potato varieties for french fries

Globally, Santana and Frysona are the two major potato varieties for making french fries. Santana is considered better than Frysona owing to its oblongated shape and yellow flesh.

Gujarat’s Banaskantha district is the largest producer of the Frysona variety of potatoes.

For every kilogram of french fries, two kilograms of potatoes are needed. Usually, 9 mm french fries are exported while the smaller 6 mm is consumed in the domestic market.

Major types of frozen potato products

Here are the major frozen potato products – French Fries, Tikki, Potato Wedges, Potato Bites, and Smileys.