Mehsana, India, a french fry capital? Youd better believe it. McCain Foods sure does. Thats why the Canadian potato giant is injecting another $69 million on top of its current $37 million investment into greatly increasing output at its plant in Mehsana.
The facility, which only opened five years ago, has captured nearly 80% of the countrys frozen potato market. McCain Foods Indias current output of 43,000 tons of potatoes a month cannot come close to keeping up with demand for fries in a country that hardly knew them back in the day.
About one-third of the McCain fries produced at its plant in the northeastern state of Gujarat go to McDonalds. Others are taken by Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and luxury hotels. McCain also has a rapidly growing retail business, selling not only fries but other frozen potato products such as Potato Bites with Chilli Garlic and its spicy Aloo Tikki mashed potato croquettes.
They are sold directly to consumers in 70 cities while hash brown potatoes are exported to South Africa.
