Uttar Pradesh bets on Jewar airport to open export routes for Indian potatoes

India’s largest potato-producing state is building export infrastructure around the new Noida International Airport at Jewar, with West Asia, Europe and Russia named as target markets. The plans are ambitious, but the first shipments are measured in single tonnes, and the largest consignment now being prepared will travel by sea rather than by air.

India, 21 September 2026. Based on reporting by PotatoPro, citing India Aviation News.

A state with volume but little export reach

Uttar Pradesh harvests more than 20 million tonnes of potatoes a year, which makes it the leading producer in India. India itself is the world’s second-largest potato producer. Very little of that crop reaches foreign buyers, however. The new airport is meant to shorten the path from farm to export market for the state’s 17 main potato-growing districts.

The most prominent of these districts is Aligarh, 76 km from Jewar. According to the report, around 650,000 tonnes of potatoes are currently held there in 126 cold stores.

Two pieces of infrastructure

The plans have two components. The first is a dedicated facility at the airport for processing and certifying export potatoes. With it, farmers and farmer-producer organisations (FPOs) would no longer need to travel to other cities to complete export formalities.

The second is a 20-hectare (50-acre) Agri Export Hub proposed by the Yamuna Expressway Industrial Development Authority (YEIDA). It is to include processing and packaging lines and a gamma-irradiation unit for treating fresh produce.

PotatoPro places the hub beside the airport’s cargo terminal. Earlier reporting by AgroTech Space (October 2025) gives a different location: a site within Patanjali’s food park in Sector 24A, just over 10 km from the cargo terminal. According to the same report, the project is backed by the World Bank and the state government and received state cabinet approval on 22 July 2025. It is designed as a general horticultural export centre rather than a potato-specific one. No commissioning date has been announced.

Varieties and first shipments

According to the report, the table varieties 3797 and Surya have already met quality requirements in foreign markets. The processing varieties Frysona and Fry Home, used for French fries and crisps, are being prepared for export.

Agri Shine FPO recently sent 12 quintals (1.2 tonnes) of potatoes to Bahrain by air, routed through Lucknow airport. A 30-tonne consignment of Frysona and Fry Home is now being readied for the same destination. Agri Shine FPO director Jitendra Awasthi said that this shipment would go by containerised sea freight.

The Russia question

Russia’s appearance on the list of target markets stands out. Russia is one of the world’s largest potato producers; it harvested 19.5 million tonnes in 2025, according to AB-Centre data cited in Russian media. Even so, it imports potatoes every year to cover the late-winter and spring gap, when domestic stocks run down. Those imports are concentrated between January and June. Egypt and China are the leading suppliers, with Belarus, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Pakistan and Iran also shipping. India is not among the significant suppliers. Analysts expect the 2026 Russian harvest to come in below last year’s, which could widen the import window again.

The seasonal fit is real: Uttar Pradesh harvests its main crop in late winter and early spring, which coincides with Russian import demand. Several factors nonetheless limit the near-term prospects:

• Volume. Shipments of 1.2 tonnes and 30 tonnes are pilot quantities, far below the scale of Russia’s seasonal imports.
• Mode of transport. Air freight suits only small or urgent consignments. Bulk potatoes and processed products move by sea, as the original report itself acknowledges. Any meaningful trade with Russia would therefore bypass Jewar as a transport hub. The airport’s value would lie in certification, grading, packaging and irradiation rather than in carrying the goods.
• Competition. Egypt and Pakistan already serve the same spring window with established logistics.
• Market access. The report makes no mention of phytosanitary approval from Rosselkhoznadzor, Russia’s plant and veterinary health regulator, nor of talks with Russian buyers. For now, Russia is a planning target rather than an active destination.

What to watch

The Jewar project signals that India’s largest potato-growing state wants to turn its production volume into export presence. Whether that includes Russia will depend less on the airport than on phytosanitary access, sea-freight economics and the ability to compete with Egyptian and Pakistani supply. Until then, the only confirmed destination is Bahrain.

Source: India Aviation News