September 28, 2010

Indian poultry industry looks up on export revamp

India's poultry industry is looking to revive its export volume soon after an economic slowdown for the past two years due to bird flu.

Exports were most affected part of the industry during its slump as Indian eggs were banned West Asian countries. However, exports to North Africa and countries such as Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan were still alive.

Mr A. Shivakumar, MD of the VKS Farms Pvt. Ltd said, "Egg exports have been affected badly in the last two years mainly due to incidence of bird flu in the eastern parts of our country. In June, the Centre had declared the country free of bird flu. Buyers will usually wait for six months after such declaration to begin purchases again. We hope the export market will open up again in West Asia once the Governments there lift the ban."

As per National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), exports during April-August in the current fiscal have fell to an average 4.3 crore a month from 8.74 crore a month last fiscal.

Dr P. Selvaraj, Chairman of the Namakkal region, NECC, has different view in terms of rebound in the industry, as he says, "I doubt if we will get back the West Asian market as before. The domestic poultry sector has come up nicely in those countries in these couple of years and their Government would try to encourage them."

Moving on, when we consider exporting, it is also not an easy task to overcome competition from Brazil. A carton of 360 eggs from India costs US$21-22 in West Asia against over US$30 for eggs from countries such as Brazil. Eggs from Brazil and other western nations cost higher because they are found to be uniform in size and in better condition.

On a brighter note, Indian poultry giant Venkateshwara Hatcheries Group, which began its operations in Bangladesh last week, looks to bring in new technology to the poultry sector.