August 9, 2004

Indian Poultry Exports At Record High
 

India's poultry industry has shaken off the bird flu scare and is growing at a healthy rate of 6-7 percent per annum, experts said Friday.

Experts at a poultry expo in southern Coimbatore, attended by hundreds of delegates from across the country and abroad, said the brolier sector showed the most promising 13-15 percent growth rate.

"About three million people are directly employed by the poultry industry. Indian industry is growing by 6-7 percent every year. Broiler industry is growing...by 13-15 percent is the annual growth now. Now the per capita consumption of chicken is around 1.6 kilos in India, southern poultry consume more, around 4 kilos per capita consumption is going now," P.V. Ragupathy, a poultry expert, said.

Raghupathy added that the exports, which picked up in April showed an upward trend.

"In between February-March the bird flu scare was there but it has not affected India. Some of the countries Malaysia, Thailand were affected. Here there was a scare and so the consumption in February and March dropped. In April it picked up. There is absolutely no problem now, disease problem is not there, marketing problem is not there, everything is going smoothly," Raghupathy added.

Bird flu, which broke out last December, killed millions of chickens across Asia, but India was spared. The per capita consumption of poultry products hit an all time low during 2003 December to April 2004.

India is ranked fifth biggest egg producer and the 14th in poultry meat production in the world.