Pepsi Withdraws Lawsuit Against Potato Farmers After Talks With Gujarat Government 

PepsiCo on Thursday (2 April) withdrew its lawsuit against nine Gujarat farmers over them growing its patented variety of potatoes used in Lay’s chips, Reuters reported.

Pepsi was reported as saying that it decided to withdraw its lawsuit after having discussions with the government.

“After discussions with the government, the company has agreed to withdraw the cases against the farmer”, a PepsiCo India spokesperson said. The spokesperson also confirmed that the case has been withdrawn against all the nine farmers.

Earlier, the Gujarat government had backed potato farmers who have been sued for around Rs 1 crore each by Pepsi for growing its patented FC5 potato it uses in manufacturing Lay’s chips.

The Gujarat government was also reported to have been working on an out-of-court settlement favouring the farmers.

The beverage and food major earlier offered an out of the court settlement to the farmers which involved them either growing the potatoes under its Corporate Farmers Programme or stop growing its registered FC5 variety and surrender the existing stocks.