Amul to start selling French fries, aloo tikki this Diwali
Indian dairy giant Amul is set to launch frozen potato products like French Fries, potato wedges, hash browns, and aloo tikkis/burger patties next month, before Diwali. Speaking on the sidelines of "The Red Brick Summit" at IIM-Ahmedabad, RS Sodhi, Managing Director of Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation (which markets Amul products), said potatoes are the first non-milk commodity Amul would procure directly from farmers.
RS Sodhi said: "We will launch potato products such as french fries and burger patty in the second week of October. Initially, we will produce 50,000 metric tonne of various potato products. We have hired a processing facility at Mehsana (Gujarat)."
Amul would soon start procuring one lakh potatoes directly from about 2,000 farmers in North Gujarat's Deesa and neighboring areas to produce 50,000-tonne frozen food products; Deesa is considered a potato farming hub. Interestingly, Canadian frozen food giant McCain has a huge food processing facility in Mehsana from where it supplies processed food items to McDonald's. McCain also procures potatoes from North Gujarat.
Sodhi said Amul's foray into frozen potato foods would not only help farmers get a better price but also make frozen foods more affordable for consumers. Amul's potato products would be priced 15-20% cheaper than those available in the market. He added they have an unparalleled infrastructure for marketing the products, which would reach all major Indian cities in a month.
RS Sodhi stated: "Despite having good quality, potato farmers are not getting remunerative prices. We have taken this initiative to provide better returns to the potato growers." Also, Amul will procure potatoes through contract farming and provide seeds to farmers as well.
