The Hindu Business Line : Venky's bets big on export of value-added chicken to Japan

The Pune-based VH group is setting up a spanking new Rs 15-crore plant which will process 44,000 chicken a day to make Teriyaki, to be exported to Japan.

Venky's India ltd, expects revenues of Rs 1 crore every month from export of value-added chicken to Japan in the first six months after which it revenues from this stream is expected to double, Ms Anuradha Desai, Chairperson told Business Line on Thursday.

The company's exports will receive a huge boost with the Japanese order, Ms Desai said. "We already export Rs 55 crore worth of egg powder to Japan and this order is just the tip of the ice berg," she said.

The group is also simultaneously putting in place a Rs 150-crore expansion plan which will see it setting up a network of feed mills, layer and broiler hatcheries across various markets, including Bangalore and Chandigarh, Ms Desai said. Also on the priority list is the group's foray into the livestock vaccines business, the first of which, for the Foot and Mouth disease, will kick off in March 06, she added. "We plan to make 120 million doses of the FMD vaccine," Ms Desai said, adding that a Rs 35-crore plant for the same is coming up at Hinjewadi, Pune, which will cater to the domestic and export markets.

Meanwhile, the group is right now in the process of setting up a 80,000 layers hatchery at Namakkal to supply layer chicks to the farmers in the region which accounts for an estimated 90 per cent of the total export of table eggs from India. A 50,000 layer hatchery is simultaneously coming up in Hyderabad and a 10,000 broiler hatchery in Chandigarh is expected to be operational by May 2006, Ms Desai said.

In Maharashtra, the group is setting up a 1,50,000 broiler farm at Nashik. "The Indian market is growing exponentially and while there was a glut in the market last year, prices are picking up now," she pointed out. Indians consume 95 lakh kg of chicken and 11 crore eggs every day.

The group is also simultaneously tapping the rapidly growing market for poultry vaccine and is putting in place a Rs 15-crore plant which will take its total vaccine production to 200 million doses. "We are also seriously considering getting into the human vaccine business, initially with anti-rabies, measles vaccine," Ms Desai said. "Biotechnology is one of our fortes and we plan to tap this talent for further growth."

The group already supplies specific pathogen free eggs to a number of vaccine manufacturers in the domestic and export markets.