April 13, 2004

Indian Meat Demand Forecast To Rise
 

The demand for meat in India is expected to be about 1.40 crore tonnes per annum by 2020, a recent survey carried out on the livestock industry has revealed.

The Compound Livestock Feed Manufacturing Association (CLFMA)'s Livestock Industry Survey 2003 was conducted by the Delhi-based Indian Agribusiness System and the report was released recently during a seminar here.

According to the survey, the livestock sector in India had undergone significant changes during the last decade and was poised to emerge as a world class economic sector.

While the agricultural sector in the country constitutes about 27 per cent of the economy, the livestock sector contributes six per cent of the total economy and 25 per cent of the agricultural economy, the survey pointed out.

The forecasted demand of goat/sheep meat, with a growth rate of 4.8 per cent, would be 879,000 tonnes by 2005 and 1,772,000 tonnes by 2020. Buffalo meat would be 2,619,000 tonnes by 2020. 

The demand for Pig meat, with an annual growth rate of 5.1 per cent, would be 1,507,000 tonnes by 2020 from 717 tonnes, by next year, the survey claimed.

The demand rate for broiler meat and live weight would be 8,043,000 tonnes by 2020, it added.

In the dairy sector, the growth rate during the last one decade was 4.2 per cent per annum and the per capita consumption was 225 gms per day. During the next five years, the demand would continue to grow at a steady pace of 4.5 per cent per annum to reach a level of 100 to 105 million tonnes per annum by 2007, the survey predicted.

The survey said the average productivity of Indian Bovines was 2.9 kg per day and there were several pockets of excellence in Punjab, Gujarat, western Maharashtra and a few isolated pockets where high productivity had been achieved with improved buffaloes and cross bred cows.

Surveying the inland fish production, it said the fish production had grown rapidly during the last two decades and had now overtaken the marine fish production.