July 3, 2007

 

India opens its meat processing market to foreign companies

 

 

International food processing giants are looking to tap India's vast market for food processors.

 

US meat producer Tyson Foods and various Italian companies are among the contenders hoping to set up meat processing plants in the country in the next five years

 

According to India's Ministry of Food Processing, the firms will provide technological know-how and develop the country's first 50 abattoirs that would meet all international sanitary and phytosanitary standards.

 

The byproducts would be utilised in production of meat-cum-bone meal, tallow, and bone chips, a senior ministry official said.

 

Another 50 abattoirs would be planned by the end of the 11th Five Year Plan if the current venture is successful, the ministry said.

 

The ministry is concerned that at present, only 6 percent of the country's poultry meat is sold in a processed form.

 

The government is thus making plans to provide financial assistance of up to Rs 70 lakh (US$170,000) to companies setting up modern abattoirs and meat processing plants.

 

India's processing capacity now stands at than 1 million tonnes of meat per year, of which up to half is exported. Up to 21 percent of that is buffalo meat.

 

Indian buffalo meat is seeing a strong demand in international markets due to its lean meat characteristics and near organic nature. Thanks to this new found popularity, buffalo meat production in the country has been growing at 6 percent a year for the past six years.

 

There are more than 1,500 registered and unregistered abattoirs in the country, producing more than 6.3 million tonnes of meat (processed and unprocessed).