India’s Iscon Balaji Foods Takes Hungritos Brand to MIHAS Halal Trade Show
Gujarat-based potato processor Iscon Balaji Foods showcased its frozen potato brand Hungritos at MIHAS 2026 in Kuala Lumpur, targeting halal export corridors across Southeast Asia with a farm-to-freezer supply chain built on contract seed farming.
Iscon Balaji Foods, a potato processing company based in Gujarat, India, presented its frozen potato products brand Hungritos at the Malaysia International Halal Showcase (MIHAS) 2026, held at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC) in Kuala Lumpur from 23 to 26 September. The company exhibited at stand 4D31-4D03, running live product tastings for trade visitors.
The participation marks a deliberate push into Southeast Asian and halal-certified export markets. MIHAS is one of the largest halal trade events globally, drawing buyers from retail, food service and quick-service restaurant (QSR) channels across the Muslim-majority markets of Asia and the Middle East. For an Indian processor, the show is a gateway to private label contracts and food service distribution in regions where halal certification is a market entry requirement rather than a preference.
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Iscon Balaji’s pitch to those buyers rests on what the company describes as a fully integrated value chain: seed potato production under contract farming arrangements, processing into French fry and specialty formats, and individual quick freezing (IQF) for export logistics. The company positions this integration — from contracted seed in Indian fields to frozen product at the port — as its quality and traceability argument in export negotiations.
The Hungritos range covers frozen potato specialties aimed at both retail and QSR applications. At the stand, the company emphasized its ability to serve private label programs, a segment where Southeast Asian retail groups and Middle Eastern importers are actively expanding their frozen potato offerings as QSR chains grow across the region.
India’s frozen potato processing sector has grown rapidly over the past decade, built initially on supplying the domestic QSR boom and increasingly oriented toward exports. Gujarat and other northern Indian states supply processing varieties grown under contract by thousands of smallholders, with seed supply historically one of the sector’s bottlenecks — the reason Indian processors and policymakers alike have been courting Dutch seed partnerships (see our separate coverage of the Indo-Dutch seed dialogue).
Competition in the halal frozen potato corridor is intensifying. European exporters currently dominate premium segments, but their freight cost disadvantage into Southeast Asia leaves room for Indian and Chinese suppliers, particularly as Indian plants add capacity and certification. Industry data cited in our coverage of European fry exports put Chinese export fry prices around €911 per tonne and Indian prices near €840 per tonne, against a European average of €1,107 — a spread that explains why buyers at shows like MIHAS are sampling Indian product seriously.
For Iscon Balaji, the Kuala Lumpur appearance is part of a stated goal to expand exports across Southeast Asia and halal trade corridors, with QSR chains and private label programs named as the priority channels.
The show also underlines how Indian processors are professionalizing their export playbook: rather than competing on price alone, the company led with supply-chain control — contracted seed, controlled processing, IQF logistics — because that is the argument that wins retail and QSR listings where food safety audits and traceability documentation decide shelf space. In that respect, MIHAS functioned less as a spot market and more as a qualification round: buyers sample the product, then audit the plant.
