Localisation seems to be the flavour of the season for fast food retail giants in India. McCain Foods - the world's largest French fry producer and global MacFry suppliers to McDonald's - is betting big on the local consumption of potatoes from 2,000 metric tonne per year to 10,000 metric tonne by 2010 from its manufacturing facility at Mehsana, Gujarat. Till mid 2007, McDonald's India was importing its entire requirement of MacFries. Abhijit Upadhye, director-national supply chain, menu management & new business channels, McDonald's India said, "Our aim now is to aggressively increase our local sourcing of MacFry to 100% by end 2010. McDonald's is committed to working with local suppliers and farmers to source all its requirements from India. McCain Foods, our global MacFry supplier, spent around eight years of R&D efforts to grow the Shepody variety of potatoes in India that meet all our requirements from the farms in Palanpur, Himmatnagar and Deesa, Gujarat.' Two additional potato varieties are under trial by McCain in Gujarat to check their suitability for making MacFry. These varieties could join the fray within a year, adding to McCain's raw material base and ultimately fast tracking McDonald's local supply, he added. According to industry experts, for any multinational food retailers in India, it is imperative to have 30% localisation and 70% global content, or rather, a