February 19, 2010
Amrit Group targets processed chicken market
India's top poultry breeding, hatchery and feed business, Amrit Group based in Calcutta is set to enter the processed chicken market next month with 50% of the products targeted at exports.
The company's products will be processed and marketed under the brand Fresco Pollo, or fresh chicken, with the target of achieving a turnover of Rs10 billion (US$215.3 million) during the current fiscal year, a top official at Amrit Group said.
Amitava Sarkar, the company's business head for food processing, said: "We are foraying into the processed chicken market soon. It's a huge market and there are not many players. In India, only a minuscule portion of chicken is processed.
However, Sarkar said that exports will, start in another eight to nine months. The product will be initially launched in Kolkata followed by Delhi and its neighbouring areas, Guwahati, Bhubaneswar, Jamshedpur, Siliguri, Bangalore and Darjeeling.
The company is looking at Asian countries like Japan, China, Malaysia, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar for the initial target of export, and then would expand into the Middle East and Europe.
Sarkar said the consumption of chicken per capita per annum was 2.2kg in India, which was minimal compared to global standards.
Sarkar said Amrit will have several value-added and ready-to-cook chicken products - from entire range of chicken salami and sausages to seekh kabab, shammi kabab and roasted chicken.
The group is also constructing a modern abattoir in Durgapur at an investment of Rs400 million (US$8.61 million). The company has 12 feed manufacturing units in West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. It also has 12 hatching units spread across West Bengal and two breeding farms along with a state-of-the-art poultry meat processing plant.
Meanwhile, other players who operate in this sector nationally are Arambagh in the eastern zone and Godrej Agrovet, Venkateshwara Hatcheries and Suguna.
