Pepsi offers to settle Indian potato dispute amid criticism

PepsiCo India is attempting to settle a lawsuit against four Indian farmers who the food and drink company say infringed its IP by growing a protected variety of potato.

A company spokesperson confirmed to LSIPR that Pepsi had taken legal action against four farmers in the Gujarat region for growing a potato variety which the company uses to make its ‘ Lay’s’ crisp brand.

In a statement, the spokesperson said that “the company was compelled to take the judicial recourse as a last resort to safeguard the larger interest of thousands of farmers that are engaged with its collaborative potato farming program.

The spokesperson said that Pepsi had “already proposed to amicably settle with people who were unlawfully using seeds of its registered variety”.

Yet the company is now facing fresh criticism from a group with ties to India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

According to  Reuters, Pepsi have been accused of “coercing...intimidating and exploiting” the farmers by Ashwani Mahajan, head of the Swadeshi Jagran Manch, a BJP-linked organisation that focuses on economic issues.

Mahajan called on the Indian government to intervene on the side of the farmers in the dispute to ensure they were not “harassed”.

In the statement, Pepsi said that it had offered the farmers the opportunity to participate in its “collaborative potato farming programme”, which the company said would offer “access to higher yields, enhanced quality, training in best-in-class practices and better prices”.

The case is set to be heard in an Ahmedabad court on June 12.

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