November 23, 2012

Avian flu outbreaks in the last few years have affected India's aim of becoming a key egg exporter.

Oman, the largest buyer of Indian eggs, has now imposed a second ban on Indian shipments this year following the avian flu incidence in a research farm in Karnataka.

The earlier embargo on Indian eggs enforced by Oman in March was only lifted in September. Oman accounts for over 60% of the egg export turnover from India. West Africa and Afganistan are the other major buyers of Indian eggs.

Since the first outbreak of avian flu in India in 2006, egg exports have been showing a downward trend.

"We used to export ten containers a day, each container containing four to 4.5 lakh eggs. It has dropped to four or less containers now. In the last four years, we have been having nearly two avian flu outbreaks annually," said Dr P V Senthil, secretary of Livestock and Agri Farmers Trade Association.

Often, the ban is imposed not knowing that the places where the avian flu occurred are far away from the exporting centre.

Namakkal in Tamil Nadu is the egg export hub of India.

Two incidents of avian flu outbreaks happened in Tripura and Karnataka. "We need to impress this upon the importing countries, who consider India as one region, about this and also there should be a national guideline on how to deal with such incidents," Dr Senthil said.

"Though export accounts for a small part of the egg production in India, a ban affects the sentiment. There is also an excess production in the country which has pushed the prices down," said K G Anand, general manager of Venkiteswara Hatcheries, a major exporter of eggs.

To stabilise the prices, the poultry industry in Namakkal is planning to cull birds for a longer period.