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Company Release, August 1
New Delhi
McCain Foods India (Private) Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of McCain Foods - world’s largest producer of French fries and potato specialties with sales of over $6bn – will set up a potato processing plant in India. The plant, McCain’s first in India, will be built with an investment of Rs.70crore in Gujarat (Mehsana district) and is scheduled to begin production in second-half of 2006.
Headquartered at Canada, McCain has more than 55 plants across the world and markets products in over 110 countries. One in every three French fries consumed in the world today is from McCain. Globally, McCain buys from farmers and processes nearly 3% of potatoes grown for human consumption. Besides French fries, McCain also markets a range of quality frozen food products including potato specialties, pizzas, appetizers, vegetables and desserts.
President and CEO, McCain Foods Mr. Dale F. Morrison said, “Our new production facility in India will help supply our business in the country and across the Indian subcontinent. This factory is designed to expand as we build our business and grow the marketplace for frozen potato products.”
McCain will produce French fry and potato specialties at the Mehsana plant. The plant will have capacity to process 30,000 tonnes of potatoes annually.
Mr. Jaideep Mukherji, Country Manager for India and Indian subcontinent, said, “This investment is a clear expression of our company’s confidence in the enterprise and skills of Gujarat potato farmers and the long term market potential of frozen French fries and Potato specialties in India. The decision to build the plant is a culmination of 7 years of hard work in India on agronomy, sales and setting-up of a frozen distribution network.”
Partnering Gujarat Farmers for World-class produce
McCain’s choice of North Gujarat for its first plant in India follows extensive agronomy trials to identify the area with best potential in India to grow French fry quality potatoes with use of improved agronomy practices.
Beginning in 1998, McCain’s agronomy program evaluated the 4 major and traditional potato-growing areas: West-UP, Central-UP, Punjab and West Bengal. Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, seen as emerging potato-growing areas were later added to the program.
After years of extensive research & trials in partnership with farmers, the results favored Gujarat and the company decided to focus exclusively on the growing areas in Gujarat (Deesa, Vijapur, Ladol, Degam, Kheda and Anand) from 2002.
“Although there are thousands of potato varieties only a handful of varieties in the world are able to meet the standards of production of a high-quality French fry. Process quality potatoes as we call them can be grown commercially in North Gujarat areas. Not only are the soil and climatic conditions suitable, the farmers are enthusiastic and keen to adopt the best practices and grow new varieties after participating in the trials,” said Mr. Mukherji.
McCain works closely with farmers in Gujarat in sharing the best agronomy practices - modern irrigation systems, new planting techniques, objective methods of fertilizer and pesticide applications and contemporary methods of potato storing. “The aim is as much to learn the local agricultural practices as to share global best practices suitable to potato farming in Gujarat,” according to McCain Agriculture Manager Mr. Devendra Kumar.
For further information
Ira Arora/ Rituparna Dutta
Torque Communications Pvt. Ltd.
Ph: (011) - 51756153-58
Mobile: 98112-88862
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