Growth and Potential of Potato Processing Industries in India

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to explore potato processing
potentialities and growth of processing industries in organized and
unorganized sectors. Potato being a bulky and perishable vegetable,
its conversion to processed products not only adds shelf life,
eliminates wastages and problems of storage along with providing
different preferred processed products year-round. There has been
tremendous growth of the processing industries in the organized
sector with the involvement of large number of multinationals as well
as national entrepreneurs in different potato growing states. The
unorganized sector not only provides inexpensive processed
products for the domestic markets but also caters employment
generation in the rural sector. For the processing of potato specific
varietal characteristics are required for which large number of
varieties specifically suited for processing has been developed by
CPRI Shimla. Technologies have been developed for the efficient
storage of potato under cold storage to enable the regular supply of
the required quality and quantity of processing type potato to the
industry. An attempt has been made to review different aspects of
potato processing industries in this conceptual paper.