Agri-commerce company WayCool Foods on Friday announced that it is investing $5 million into Siddhi Vinayak Agri Processing, a fully integrated player in the potato supply chain ecosystem. The investment will allow both companies to leverage their supply chain ecosystems and boost the quality and supply of potato seed, storage and processing across India.
SV Agri will look to introduce a wide variety of seed potatoes and further expand their existing storage solutions while also gaining access to WayCool’s strong network in South India and international markets. Leveraging both supply chains will enable the companies to increase the production of high quality potatoes for Indian consumption and as well as meet global demands.
SV Agri plans to introduce a new low glycemic variant of Potatoes called ‘Carisma’. The new variant scores 58 points on the glycemic index as opposed to the available potato variant that scores 80 points. ‘Carisma’ has been very well received in health-conscious markets abroad and is soon to make an entry into the Indian market, WayCool said in a statement.
“We are making a ‘Keiretsu’ in agri-commerce,” Karthik Jayaraman, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, WayCool Foods & Products said. “This investment is another step towards that. SV Agri has expertise ranging from providing high quality seeds for farmers with advisory services, best in class storage solutions, nationwide delivery network, top of the line engineering solutions and capability to manufacture a wide range of processing equipment.”
India’s domestic demand for potatoes has slowly increased over the last few decades. India’s daily consumption of potatoes stands at 1.25 lakh tonnes per day and is growing at a steady pace making it the fourth largest food crop grown in the country. Owing to the association with world-renowned Dutch cooperative, Agrico, SV Agri boasts of providing Indian farmers with some of the best-in-class potato seeds, the company said.
“We see a great demand for high-quality potatoes in southern India and see an opportunity to leverage our expertise to quell the demand with the help of our collaboration with WayCool. We can also see a fruitful partnership for our cold storage and engineering solutions as WayCool is renowned to push boundaries when it comes to innovative and customized solutions to adapt their supply chain as per Indian requirements,” Hemant Gaur, co-founder of SV Agri Processing, said.
