Putting Indian potato products on world map — the HyFarm way

Fifteen years ago, when Canadian multinational frozen foods company McCain Foods faced several challenges upon its entry into India, Ahmedabad-based Asandas and Sons launched HyFun Foods. The advantage the Gujarat-based company held was that the family had a background in potato trading.

“Frozen snacks business is a costly affair with capital and operational expenditure being high. But Asandas began their journey in this launching HyFun in Gujarat with the advantage of a good network of farmers it had,” says S Soundararadjane, Chief Executive Officer, HyFarm — an arm of HyFun Foods.

HyFun’s progress gathered pace once the right French fries potato variety was found in India 5-6 years ago. And the Covid pandemic turned out to be the turning point.

S. Soundararadjane, Chief Executive Officer, HyFarm

During Covid, the entire supply chain was disrupted. HyFun began to share its samples with buyers across the world. “Every buyer found that HyFun products were able to meet international standards. And everyone felt that this was as good as any other American or European offerings. So it started clicking,” he told businessline during his recent visit to Chennai.

Farm-to-shelf

Since then, HyFun’s potato products — French fries, hash browns and flakes — have been exported to 40 countries. “By utilising Indian-grown potatoes in our French fries and other frozen foods, we ensure the highest-quality products for our consumers while supporting Indian agriculture and local potato farmers,” says Haresh Karamchandani, MD & Group CEO, HyFun Foods.

Through its HyFarm initiative, the company combines advanced technologies with the heritage of Indian potato growers to cater not only to the needs of the domestic market but also expand its footprint globally, serving diverse consumer preferences, he said.

“HyFun Foods is dedicated to putting India on the world map as a leading supplier of quality frozen food products. We are deeply committed to the ‘Make in India’ initiative, which aligns with our mission to create world-class products,” said Karamchandani.

For HyFun Foods, HyFarm is a “farm-to-shelf” vertical supply chain with a unique business model starting with contract farming for seed multiplication and procurement of commercial crops through a comprehensive agriculture programme, said Soundararadjane.  

Engaged in contract farming

For this, HyFarm has a strong backward linkage. The company engages over 6,000 farmers in contract farming. Through its seed multiplication programme, it ensures good control over quality and costs. “For contract farming, we provide the best quality seeds and agronomy services,” he said.

The company has a special variety license agreement with breeders. In the early stage, mini tubers are produced in tissue culture labs through hydroponics and aeroponics technology. This is for the first and second years of the first-generation seed.

From the third year onwards, the first-generation seed multiplication is done through corporate farming on over 300 acres ensuring quality control and cost optimisation.

The second generation seed is developed during the fourth year and the third generation in the fifth year. “Two seasons of further seed multiplication is done through contract growers under supervision and agronomy support,” he said.

Sustainability, a priority

Expert consultants train the growers and the firm’s agro team on “good agricultural practices” ensuring continuous improvement in quality and production.

They also help in improving post-harvest practices, mainly in handling and storage. “The agriculture supply chain ensures raw potato is maintained at their best in cold storage and supplied to their state-of-the-art processing plants,” the HyFarm CEO said.

Sustainability is the company’s priority and it promotes eco-friendly farming techniques to minimise environmental impact. “Our efforts are to promote eco-friendly farming techniques and ensure a sustainable supply chain of high-quality potatoes,” said Soundararadjane.

HyFarm has set up advanced high-tech cold storage which ensures raw potatoes are stored at their best until they are processed. It has an extensive supply chain that provides last-mile connectivity ensuring cold chain is maintained right up to the shelf, he said.

Farmoji app

The company has set up state-of-the-art processing plants and adopted good manufacturing processes. “We have five potato processing plants in Gujarat with an annual capacity of 2.5 lakh tonnes.

Stating that potato seed growers are the backbone of its value chain, the HyFarm CEo said the company has launched an app Farmoji to help farmers. 

“Farmoji serves seed potato growers 24x7 by providing them customised crop advisories and reinforcing soil health and regenerative agricultural practices. It provides farmers with crop and weather advisories. In addition, it allows them access to webinars by experts and provides exact details about seed supplies, delivery status, etc,” he said.

The company has launched “HyFarm Paathshala” in Gujarat. The initiative is the first in the industry to enlighten contract growers engaged in growing French fry varieties to improve productivity.

Paathshalas

“It is a knowledge centre blending modern technologies with the traditional wisdom of potato farmers. HyFarm Paathshala is focused on driving re-generative agricultural practices, reducing cost of cultivation and improving yields of French fry variety,” said Soundararadjane.

HyFarm has established 30 such “Paathshalas”, referred to as model farms across north Gujarat’s potato-growing regions, mainly in Sabarkantha and Banaskantha.

The “Paathshala” will drive hands-on training and provide guidance in pre-sowing, mid-season and pre-harvest stages blending the knowledge of potato experts, global subject specialists, technology and experiences of potato farmers in the French fry industry.

“HyFarm Paathshala will use IoT sensors and digital tools to monitor soil and weather conditions. This will enable farmers to make data-driven decisions to achieve the best results, he said.

Novel initiative

The company has come up with a novel initiative launching “box cold store” for seed potatoes. The first such store has been set up in Ludhiana, Punjab - a key potato-growing region.

“The box cold store increases the storage life of potatoes by 10-15 per cent and ensures better seed potato preservation, reduces spoilage and improves the quality of seeds. It enables maintaining precise and uniform temperature controls, including advanced humidity control systems, and reduces spoilage rates to a great extent” the HyFarm CEO said.

These initiatives have helped it to retain at least 90 per cent of the farmers who work with it - an impressive figure going by industry standards.

Having increased its revenues to ₹1,320 crore in 2023-24 (up from ₹324 crore in 2019-20, HyFun plans to invest ₹1,000 crore over the next three years.

Future plans

 “Currently, we have five potato processing plants in Gujarat with an annual capacity of 2.5 lakh tonnes. We plan to set up three more plants in Mehsana for potato flakes, French fries and potato speciality products,” said Soundararadjane.

HyFarm will be active in Madhya Pradesh by 2026, having started work on setting up a processing plant. It will also be active in Uttar Pradesh by 2027.

“Over the next 3 -4 years, we want to reach out to 100-plus countries apart from strengthening our hold in the US, Australia and Europe,” said the HyFarm CEO.