Frozen French Fries from Nepal being exported to the US

London – You may be eating  French Fries- manufactured in Nepal – in the UK restaurants soon, reports say.

According to Gorkhapatra daily, First Choice Foods Pvt Ltd has shipped 41 tonnes of “Himalayan Crisp” and “Hamro Fries” brand frozen potato chips, to the US market over the last two months.

Frozen French fries are transported by road from Bhairahawa to Kolkata and then shipped by sea to the United States.

From Kolkata, the shipment takes around 55 days to reach the US.

According to Krishna Paudel, director of First Choice Foods Pvt Ltd,  the company is exporting fries to India and the US at the moment and plans to export them to the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan, Dubai, Malaysia, and Saudi Arabia from next year.

 “We are producing two tonnes of French fries per hour using state-of-the-art European technology,” Paudel said. “It is a matter of pride to take products made from the hard work of Nepali farmers to the global market.”

After installing an advanced cold chain, packaging, and quality control system for potato processing, the company secured export approval from the Department of Food Technology and Quality Control.

The factory has built a nationwide supply network linking around 35,000 farmers from 26 districts. The company procured more than 2,000 tonnes from farmers in a single year.

“We maintain a direct relationship with farmers,” Paudel said. “We provide seeds, fertilisers, training, and technical support, and purchase potatoes directly from the fields. Farmers do not have to worry about the market.”

Potatoes are sourced from districts including Kailali, Nawalpur, Sindhuli, Kavre, Makwanpur, Chitwan, Dang, Bara, and Parsa.

Shivalal Neupane, chief of the Bhairahawa Customs Office, said the product was cleared for export only after meeting US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) quality standards.