How India quietly became a French fry powerhouse

In today’s episode on 30th September 2025, we tell you how India went from importing French fries to becoming one of the world’s biggest exporters of processed potatoes.

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  Hello folks, you're listening to Fenchats Daily. In today's episode, we tell you how India went from importing French fries to becoming one of the world's biggest exporters of processed potatoes.

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  But here's a quick side note before we begin, 18% GST on insurance is gone. What now? Since 22nd September, the 18% GST on insurance premiums has been removed. Policies are now cheaper, but the real question is, which one should you get and how much cover do you actually need? That's where our two-day masterclass comes in. We'll break down health and life insurance in simple, jargon-free steps, so you can make the most of this change and avoid costly mistakes. Click the link in the description to reserve your spot today. Also, folks, please note that we're taking a publishing break on October 1st due to Dasara and October 2nd due to Gandhi Jaanti. We'll be back on October 3rd and until then, kick back, enjoy the holidays and try not to miss us too much.

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  Alright, now onto today's story. The global French fries market is worth around 24 billion dollars. But if you rewind by a couple of decades, India was nowhere in the picture of close to making or exporting these crispy snacks. Fast order today and the story looks very different. Parados have become India's most eaten vegetable and French fries have found their way into just about every menu. For context, India now produces a whopping 60 million tonnes of parados every year, second only to China. And we're not just eating them, we're exporting them too. In FY25 alone, India shipped frozen potato products worth 1817 crore rupees. Now, that's nearly nine times what we managed just five years ago, when exports were barely 217 crore rupees.

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  And quite surprising too, considering that India was once a net importer, bringing in around 5,000 to 7,000 tonnes of parados a year in the mid 2000s. Which naturally makes you wonder, how did this crispy love affair with French fries really begin? And how did India turn into such a big player in the game? To begin with, it makes sense that India was once an importer of potatoes and fries. After all, the potato isn't even native to India. It first sprouted In South America and only made its way here in the late sixteenth or early seventeenth century, thanks to European traders. The Portuguese are believed to have bought the batata to the Malabar coast, but it was the British who really put it across the country, especially in Bengal.

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  For them, the parada was a handy for mine relief crop and a reliable staple that could thrive in India's varied climates. And that's how it became part of our home kitchens. But these were just your everyday table parados, the kind you'd buy in a local market and cook at home. They didn't fetch much money, mainly because India didn't yet have the right varieties for processing or export. International buyers also demanded strict quality standards and most small farmers simply couldn't meet them. Add to that, the lack of cold storage and transport facilities and farmers didn't have much incentive to grow parados commercially. In fact, things were often so bad that farmers in states like Bihar, UP and West Bengal sometimes had to dump their produce or even replant the same parados back into the soil

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  because selling them in the market wouldn't cover their costs. That began to change in the early two thousands, thanks to McCain Foods, the world's largest producer of frozen parada products and the brand most of us know for its ready-to-cook snacks like French fries, burger patties, aloe tiki and more. McCain came to India in ninety-eight, dabbling in agricultural R and D and trying to build a frozen food market. But it wouldn't be fair to call them the pioneers because Lamb Weston, another American food giant, had been in India long before, importing frozen French fries for big star restaurants. McCain noticed how popular fries were getting and decided to join the party. And in twenty seventeen, they set up their first parado processing plant in Mahasana in Gujarat.

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  And soon enough, it struck gold by becoming the exclusive supplier of frozen fries to McDonald's, right after the US fast food chain opened its first outlet here. That momentum didn't go unnoticed. Indian parado processing companies like Hyphen Foods, Iskcon Balaji Foods, Funway Foods and Chillful Foods jumped onto the bandwagon. And today, they rank among the country's biggest parado processors alongside McCain. They saw how global giants such as Cavendish, Lamb Weston, McCain and J R Simplot built empires out of fries and they wanted a bite of that pie too. And the way they went about it was simple. They started striking contracts with farmers, agreeing on price and quality of potatoes that supply. In return, farmers receive benefits like a short prices and markets, access to credit,

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  quality seeds and guidance on better crop growing practices. But these were in the everyday potatoes you'd find in your kitchen. These were special varieties bred specifically for processed snacks like French fries, like Santana and Frysona, the two big names in global fries game. These potatoes originally from Europe are oblong, yellow fleshed, high in starch and low in sugar. That's what gives fries their perfect crispiness and golden color. Indian table varieties just can't match them as they're too watery and sugary which makes fries brown too fast or cook unevenly. Interestingly, these foreign varieties thrive on Indian soil too, especially in Gujarat, where long days and mild sunny winters are ideal for growing processing varieties of potatoes.

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  On top of that, companies invested heavily in coal storage and logistics, making large scale exports possible and sometimes even offering fries to overseas markets at prices lower than China. This contract farming setup then just changed the lives of farmers but also transformed fortunes of Indian potato processing companies. To put things into perspective, farmers saw their incomes jump by an average of seventy five percent since 2017 and companies started exporting potatoes from being just a domestic supplier earlier. Before this, countries in Southeast Asia like the Philippines, Thailand and Indonesia, as well as Middle Eastern markets relied mostly on the US and Europe, especially Belgium and the Netherlands, the world's top exporters of frozen French fries for the supply.

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  But with the introduction of special processing potato varieties and contract farming, India became a reliable alternative, supplying French fries to markets that once seemed out of reach. Indian scientists play their part too. The CPRI or Central Potato Research Institute, under the ICAR, Indian Council of Agricultural Research, developed varieties with low sugar and high dry matter. Perfect for fries that stay crispy and soak up less oil. Which is also why India is shipping frozen potato products around the world. And that success sparked a wave of activity. More and more companies set up shop in Gujarat, diving into the manufacturing and sale of processed potatoes. In Feb this year, Indian frozen fries exports even crossed the 20,000 ton mark for the first time.

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  And Gujarat has been at the heart of the transformation, producing around 80% of the country's processed potatoes. So, yes, that's the fascinating story of how India went from being a net importer of potatoes to a major exporter. And it'll be exciting to see what happens next. Who knows, the day may not be far when we are neck to neck with large European fries exporters.

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  Thank you for listening to today's episode. And if you want to share your feedback or suggestions, do drop us an email to [email protected]. Until next time.