Chips! Pepsi cracks down on proprietary spud use
The company is seeking more than 10 million rupees from each of the farmers for alleged patent infringement
PepsiCo has sued four Indian farmers for cultivating a potato variety that the snack food and drinks maker claims infringes its patent, the company and the growers said on Friday. Pepsi has sued the farmers for cultivating the FC5 potato variety, grown exclusively for its popular Lay's potato chips. The FC5 variety has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips. The company is seeking more than 10 million rupees (approximately R2m) from each of the farmers for alleged patent infringement. The farmers grow potatoes in the western state of Gujarat, a leading producer of India's most consumed vegetable. "We have been growing potatoes for a long time and we didn't face this problem ever, as we've mostly been using the seeds saved from one harvest to plant the next year's crop," said Bipin Patel, one of the four farmers sued by Pepsi. Patel did not say how he came by the PepsiCo variety. A court in Ahmedabad, the business hub of Gujarat, on Friday agreed to hea...
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