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Latha Venkatraman
P.T. Jyothi Datta

Mumbai , Feb. 5

THE Indian poultry industry may be set to take flight into other Asian markets on the back of the Avian flu crisis affecting South-East Asia. But the export opportunities would translate into higher revenues, provided the industry sinks in more capital investments.

The poultry industry, already on a growth trajectory, is anticipating a surge in export demand mainly because World Health Organisation (WHO) has given a clean chit to the Indian industry.

"Over the last 10 days, enquiries have been coming in from West Asia and Japan, for chicken and table eggs. At present, we are exporting about 15,000-20,000 tonne from the country and this has the capacity to go up," said Mr Balram Yadav, General Manager, Godrej Agrovet Ltd.

The current poultry production figures in India are about 1.5 million tonne of poultry meat amounting to about Rs 7,500 crore, he said. Export account for a minuscule Rs 75-100 crore.

"This issue will act as a trigger for the Indian industry in the overseas markets. But we need investments as there are only 4-5 export certified plants in the country now," Mr Yadav said. "At the moment, capacity utilisation of these plants, currently at 60 per cent, could be fully utilised," he said.

However, this export opportunity exists only in the West Asian countries including Oman and Yemen. Currently, Indian poultry products head to Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates.

According to Mr Yadav, organised players in the industry were sprucing up their already existing bio-security measures in farms, hatcheries, feed mills, transport mode etc.

Allaying fears of consumers in India, Mr Yadav said the poultry industry in India was safe and so was consuming both chickens and eggs. The Central Government has banned imports of chicken into the country, which are in fact small quantities. Further, he pointed out that the Government had taken on intense surveillance in the Border States, he said in his capacity as a representative of the Poultry Processors Association.

Other representatives on this forum include officials from Venky's Chicken, Nency Poultry, C&M Poultry, Suguna Poultry Products, Zorabian Poultry and Hybro Poultry.

"We are carrying out meeting of poultry farmers to disseminate information about precautions," he said. The main poultry pockets in India are in the states of Haryana, Punjab, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.

The bird flu has given the industry the opportunity to raise some of the issues that need to be addressed. One of the main issues is that of shortage of maize and imports of maize are under quantitative restrictions and attract customs duty of 15 per cent on free imports.

The biggest stumbling block is the tax burden on value-added products. "Total tax burden including sales tax and excise, work to around 35 per cent. Value addition attracts a tax of 15.3 per cent acting as a disincentive," he said.

The Indian poultry meat market is more than Rs 80 billion. The broiler industry has seen an explosive growth in the last five years from 7.1 lakh tonne in 1998 to 15 lakh tonne in 2003.

According to Mr Yadav, poultry industry demand will double by 2009 to 3,100 million kg of meat from 1,500 million kg of meat in 2003. The per capita consumption will increase from 1.5 kg to 3.1 kg during this period.

A study by Rabo India Finance Pvt Ltd had pointed that the poultry industry growth hinges on consolidation of the industry, improved models for boosting poultry demand, integration with global markets and direct procurement of maize from farmers.

More Stories on : Poultry | Exports & Imports

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