Banas Dairy is more than doubling its French fries processing capacity to five tonnes per hour with an investment of ₹51.65 crore, as it looks to expand 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, stated an official release here. The expanded capacity — from the previous two tonnes per hour — is expected to strengthen the region’s potato processing ecosystem, widen market opportunities for local farmers and help the cooperative tap growing demand for value-added potato products in domestic and export markets.
Banaskantha has emerged as a major centre for processing-grade potato cultivation. Over the past 25 years, the area under such cultivation in the district has increased from around 400 hectares to 61,016 hectares. In 2024-25, the district produced approximately 1.87 million tonnes of potatoes, with productivity of around 30 tonnes per hectare. Fog-free winters, high dry matter content and contract farming have supported the growth of the sector.
Banas Dairy entered the French fries business in 2019 under the Amul brand and has since worked towards building an integrated supply chain spanning certified seed production, cultivation, procurement, storage and processing. The seed-to-fry model begins with disease-free germplasm sourced from the Central Potato Research Institute and other providers. Banas Dairy multiplies the material in its tissue culture laboratory and develops G0 minitubers at its aeroponic facility in Kanpur. These are then multiplied in the field up to the G3 generation to produce certified seeds for farmers, helping ensure the availability of potatoes suited to industrial processing requirements.
A key feature of the model is its advance procurement price mechanism, under which the procurement price is fixed when seeds are supplied to farmers. This gives growers greater clarity on expected returns ahead of the cultivation season and helps them plan production. In 2023-24, Banas Dairy passed on a price difference of approximately ₹1.83 crore to potato farmers. Its reported buyback price was ₹13 per unit in 2024-25 and ₹14 per unit in 2025-26.
The cooperative has also invested in supporting infrastructure, establishing a 10,000-tonne cold storage facility in 2024. In November 2025, it signed a memorandum of understanding with Bharatiya Beej Sahakari Samiti Ltd to facilitate the availability of certified seeds to farmers across India. Banas Dairy’s potato processing operations also incorporate waste utilisation. Organic waste generated during processing is used for biogas production, while the residual material is returned to agricultural fields.
Published on October 29, 2026
