Global Potato Summit 2026: Dates, Venue and What a Stall Costs

Global Potato Summit 2026 runs on 16 and 17 December at the Mahatma Mandir Convention & Exhibition Centre in Gandhinagar, Gujarat. It is the second edition, and it is the only event of its size in India built entirely around the potato — an exhibition hall, a conference, organised visits to farms and processing plants, and an awards night. A 9 sq m stand costs ₹94,500 before GST. Below is everything you need to decide whether to take one.

What Global Potato Summit 2026 actually is

This is a trade show with a conference attached, not a conference with a few stands at the back. That distinction matters when you are deciding how to spend two days: the hall is where the business happens, and the programme runs alongside it rather than over it.

Media Today Pvt. Ltd. runs it. If you have walked India Foodex, GrainTech, DairyTech or Agritech India, you already know the house style — a working trade floor, government presence, and a buyer list that skews commercial rather than academic. GPS is their potato show, and 2026 is its second outing.

Mantra Agri Solutions holds the title slot again, as it did in 2025. It is a joint venture of Haldiram Snacks Food and SK Group, which tells you something useful about the room: the largest snack manufacturer in the country is underwriting the event, and the buyers who matter to a chips-grade grower or a fryer supplier are likely to be in it.

Who else is named on the 2026 material

• Gold sponsors: Shri Vibracion Technologies Pvt Ltd and ROSS
• Conference kit sponsor: Shreeji Tastes
• Tech partner: Potato Bazaar
• Official media partners: Potato News, AgriBusiness & Food Industry, Agritech India
• International partner: Potatoes.News
• Domestic partners: IndianPotato.com and Food Industry
• Online media partners: PotatoPro, Potato Gazette, Turkish Agri News, FoodTechBiz

How big is it, really?

The first edition drew more than 10,000 visitors and over 200 exhibitors from 20-odd countries, with better than 50 speakers across the programme. The target for 2026 is 15,000 visitors and 15-plus countries.

Attendance numbers from any organiser are worth a pinch of salt, so the more telling measure is who actually took space last year. The 2025 floor included Bayer CropScience, CNH Industrial, Coromandel International, Jain Irrigation Systems, Mahindra HZPC, Technico Agri Sciences, UPL, Thermax, Merino Industries, Agristo Masa, HyFun Agrilink, Iscon Balaji Foods, McPatel Foods, Kiremko India, Tummers Kiron India, Allround, Shaktiman Grimme, Syntegon, the International Potato Center and APEDA — around forty names in all. Seed, machinery, crop protection, cold chain, processing equipment and the big processors, in one hall. For a first edition that is a serious floor, and it is the reason the second one is worth taking seriously.

What does a stall cost at GPS 2026?

Two schemes, and the choice between them is mostly about whether you are bringing a rig. Shell scheme is a built stand you walk into — walls, fascia, furniture, lights, carpet. Raw space is an empty floor plate for anyone putting up their own structure, which in this sector usually means you are showing a machine.

Everything below excludes 18% GST. Space sells first-come-first-served in multiples of 3 metres, so the ladder runs 9, 12, 15, 18 sq m and upwards.

Shell scheme — per square metre

Shell scheme includes floor rental, back and side walls, a fascia board with the company name, one table and two chairs per 9 sq m, three spotlights, the registration fee, an electric point (300W single power socket), carpet, and a company entry in the official show catalogue.

Shell scheme — total by stall size

Raw (bare) space — per square metre

Raw space includes floor rental, the registration fee, an electric point (300W single power socket) and a company entry in the official catalogue — no walls, fascia, furniture or carpet. Extra power is charged at ₹2,500 (€45) per kW.

Raw space — total by stall size

Two things to know before you sign. The stand is payable 100% up front — there is no deposit-and-balance option. And if the event is called off for a force majeure reason, your money moves to the next edition rather than coming back to you. If the organiser cancels for their own reasons you are refunded in full, minus the GST, without interest. Budget accordingly if December is tight for you.

What is on the conference programme?

Ten themes are set. Sessions and speakers are still being assembled, so treat this as the shape of the two days rather than a timetable:

• Global potato production, trade dynamics, policy frameworks and regulation
• Potato value chain development, industry integration and market linkages
• Variety development and advanced seed production systems
• Disease and pest management, post-harvest handling, processing and quality standards
• Cold chain infrastructure, storage technology, logistics and investment
• Technologies, innovation, mechanisation, climate-smart practices and big data
• Consumer trends, changing food preferences, product innovation and market demand
• Future strategies for sustainable growth of the potato sector
• Potato's contribution to food and nutrition security, with inclusive models for women, young farmers and MSMEs
• Global partnerships, private sector investment and international collaboration

Farm and factory visits

If you take one thing from this page, take this: the organised visits are the part you cannot get from a stand, and they are the reason a technical buyer should consider the trip even without exhibiting.

The farm route goes to working growers in the Gujarat belt — processable varieties in the ground, mechanisation in use, irrigation set up the way it actually runs rather than the way it is drawn. The factory route goes inside chips, French fry and snack plants: frying and seasoning lines, packaging halls, and how quality control and food safety are handled at speed. Places are organised for delegates, so they need booking rather than turning up.

Why Gandhinagar

Because this is where the processing went. The Deesa–Mehsana belt grows the high-dry-matter, low-sugar tubers that fryers need, the cold storage network behind it is among the country's densest, and Mundra and Pipavav put an export container within a day's drive. A potato show in Gujarat puts the exhibition floor inside its own supply chain, which is not true of every venue that bids for these events.

Practically: Mahatma Mandir is in the state capital, about half an hour from Ahmedabad airport, with plenty of hotel stock between the two.

Is it worth attending?

If you sell into the Indian potato chain — seed, machinery, ingredients, cold chain, packaging — the answer is yes, and a 9 sq m shell stand at ₹94,500 is a cheap way to find out whether the audience is yours before committing to a bigger footprint next year.

If you are an overseas supplier, the question is really whether India is on your plan for this year or the one after. It is the world's second-largest producer, its processing capacity has grown steadily for a decade, and the buyers do not travel much. Two days in Gandhinagar is a faster read on the market than six months of calls.

If you grow or run an FPO, go for the farm and factory visits rather than the hall. Seeing a processing line run, and hearing what it rejects and why, changes how you think about your own crop more than any stand will.

If you are simply curious about the sector, wait for the programme and decide in October. There is no rush, and the delegate pricing will be out by then.

More on this summit