India scraps PepsiCo’s patent for potato variety used to make Lay chips

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US food giant PepsiCo’s patent for a potato variety grown exclusively to make its hot-selling Lay's potato chips in India has been scrapped by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Authority.</p>
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Kavitha Kuruganti, a farmers' rights activist, had petitioned the Authority for revoking the intellectual protection granted to PepsiCo's FC5 potato variety, on the ground that any patent on seed varieties is not permissible under Indian law.</p>
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The Authority has upheld Kuruganti's argument that PepsiCo cannot claim a patent over a seed variety.</p>
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The US food giant had sparked an outrage in 2019 when it filed a legal case against some Gujarat farmers for planting the FC5 potato variety, which has a lower moisture content required to make snacks such as potato chips.</p>
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Because of the bad publicity that it got due to the move, Pepsi had then withdrawn the case and said it wanted to settle the issue amicably.</p>
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The US company supplies the FC5 seed variety to a group of farmers who then sell their produce to it at a fixed price.</p>
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Welcoming the Authority's ruling, the Gujarat potato farmers called it a victory for growers against the American food giant.</p>