Canadian potato giant McCain Foods Ltd is injecting another USD 69 million to its current USD 37-million investment to increase output at its plant in Mehsana, Gujarat, which opened five years ago. Having captured nearly 80 per cent of the country's frozen potato market since then, McCain Foods (India) Pvt Ltd’s current output of 43,000 tons of potatoes a month cannot come close to keeping up with demand.
About one-third of McCain fries produced at its plant in Gujarat is consumed by McDonald's customers.
Others are taken by Pizza Hut, Kentucky Fried Chicken and luxury hotels. McCain also has a rapidly growing retail business. The company’s products are sold directly to consumers in 70 cities, while hash brown potatoes are exported to South Africa, according to a report by Matthew Fisher in edmontonjournal.com.
Since 2008, all the executives at Mehsana have been Indians. The plant has 100 employees and 300 hourly workers. Everyone gets paid at least 10,000 a month, or twice the minimum wage. The workforce also gets subsidised meals, uniforms, free transportation and medical insurance. Like the deck crews on aircraft carriers, the workers wear colour-coded shirts that identify whether they are in quality control, maintenance and safety, or on the plant floor.