Banas Dairy Expands French Fries Processing Capacity in Gujarat

Banas Dairy is more than doubling its French fries processing capacity to five tonnes per hour with an investment of ₹51.65 crore. The expansion aims to boost value addition in Banaskantha, one of India’s largest potato-producing districts.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will e-inaugurate the expanded processing facility at Sanadar in Deodar taluka of Vav-Tharad district on Friday. Work on the processing and packing line expansion began in April 2026. The upgraded capacity, up from the previous two tonnes per hour, is designed to strengthen the region’s potato processing ecosystem, expand market opportunities for local farmers, and meet rising demand for value-added potato products in both domestic and export markets.

Banaskantha has grown into a major hub for processing-grade potato cultivation. Over the past 25 years, the area dedicated to this cultivation in the district has expanded from roughly 400 hectares to 61,016 hectares. During the 2024-25 period, the district generated about 1.87 million tonnes of potatoes, maintaining a productivity rate of around 30 tonnes per hectare. Factors such as fog-free winters, high dry matter content, and structured contract farming have supported the sector's growth.

Banas Dairy entered the French fries segment in 2019 under the Amul brand. Since then, the cooperative has developed an integrated supply chain that covers certified seed production, cultivation, procurement, storage, and processing. The seed-to-fry model utilizes disease-free germplasm sourced from the Central Potato Research Institute and other providers. Banas Dairy multiplies this material in its tissue culture laboratory and develops G0 minitubers at its aeroponic facility in Kanpur. These are subsequently multiplied in fields up to the G3 generation to generate certified seeds for farmers.

A core element of the cooperative's model is its advance procurement price mechanism, which fixes the procurement price when seeds are distributed to farmers. This arrangement provides growers with clear visibility regarding expected returns prior to the cultivation season. In 2023-24, Banas Dairy passed on a price difference of approximately ₹1.83 crore to potato farmers, with buyback prices reported at ₹13 per unit in 2024-25 and ₹14 per unit in 2025-26.

To support these operations, the cooperative established a 10,000-tonne cold storage facility in 2024. Additionally, in November 2025, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Bharatiya Beej Sahakari Samiti Ltd to improve the availability of certified seeds for farmers nationwide. Banas Dairy's processing operations also focus on waste utilization, directing organic waste toward biogas production and returning residual material to agricultural fields.

"Banas Dairy's expansion highlights the value of building an integrated agricultural supply chain, from tissue culture labs to final processing. By implementing an advance procurement price mechanism and investing in local storage and seed infrastructure, the cooperative provides farmers with essential price predictability and risk mitigation. This model demonstrates how targeted capital expenditure and sustainable waste management can strengthen regional production ecosystems and create stable market connections for agricultural producers." — Dr. Shishir Gupta, Founder & CEO, StartupLanes