December 28, 2007

Indian processor to launch vegetarian eggs

India's egg powder manufacturer and exporter announced to sell 100 percent vegetarian egg in 2008.

S Hariharan, general manager of SKM Egg Products, said that the vegetarian eggs will be made available in the domestic and foreign markets in the next few months.

The company currently exports 100 percent vegetarian egg powder, egg yolk powder and egg albumen powder to as many as 27 countries worldwide, including Europe and Japan.

The vegetarian egg will be produced by chicken that are not fed with animal-based feed. Normally, feed is supplemented with fishmeal, so eggs from chicken fed with fishmeal ingredient are not considered fully vegetarian.

The company said that instead of fishmeal, it would use soymeal as an alternative protein supplement to the feed.

SKM exported 4,500 tonnes of egg powder last year and has set up its own poultry farm with nearly 1.5 million chicks.

Presently, the company sources the vegetarian eggs from nearby Namakkal, which is southern India's egg capital.

With over 700 poultry farms, Namakkal produces 22.5 million eggs every day, which accounts for 14 percent of the country¡¯s total egg production.