Potato processing varieties in India

Abstract

POTATOES are considered as a non-fattening, nutritious and wholesome food, which supply important nutrients to the human diet. Potatoes are either consumed directly or can be processed to give products such as chips and French fries, flakes, mashed and canned potatoes. From last two decades, there has been paradigm shift in food habit and also due to fast growth in urban population, the demand of potato based ready to eatsnacks/products has increased many folds. Further, there is a rising demand for quality processed potato products from the country particularly in Middle East. Countries like Japan, Singapore, Korea and Malaysia also have a great demand for processed potato products as well as fresh potato for processing purpose. Thus, potato processing has opened a new dimension for development of agro based industries in the country. Industry is gradually expanding its capacity in various potato based locally and internationally accepted products. India utilizes only 7.5% of the total production for processing as against 30-67% in leading potato-processing nations such as the USA, Canada and Europe. Moreover, processing sector is fast growing and it is expected that the demand for this sector will increase to 25 million tonnes by 2050. To meet this challenge, round the year availability of good quality potatoes as raw material is one of the basic needs of the industry. This calls for development of superior cultivars suitable for different agro ecologies for meeting the demand of this sector.