The packaging and industrial polymers division of the US-headquartered DuPont plans to work closely with meat exporters to improve their realisations by providing innovative packaging solutions.

DuPont offers specialised ethylene copolymer resins and technology that enable protective, stylish, retail packaging.

Its advanced materials such as Nucrel, Bynel and Surlyn produce stronger, thinner packaging that enhances safety and quality, besides reducing puncture and packaging failures.

The company works with 15 converters and 30 end-users in snack foods, diary and fresh fruits and vegetables sectors in India.

Roger Kant, Asia Pacific Marketing Director, DuPont Packaging and Industrial Polymers, told BusinessLine that the general impression is that Australia is the world’s largest meat supplier, but volume wise what comes out from India is very substantial and has major impact on meat exports.

“The issue is that the Indian meat export is happening at the lower end and the value add we can offer through packaging can take this market up the value chain to the meet the growing demand at the top end of the pyramid,” he said.

Currently, Kant said India exports meat largely to those countries where it is not competing on quality but on quantity.

With the growing demand for quality meat globally, Indian exporters have to change their strategy and when it happens DuPont has significant opportunity, he said.

India is in a unique position to take advantage of this opportunity. The diary industry, which is growing at a much faster phase, and meat industry live hand-in-hand.

The value DuPont packaging can bring to sea food export from India is going to be significant, he said.

India topped the list of meat exporters by shipping 2.4 million tonnes of beef and veal last fiscal, followed by Brazil (2 mt) and Australia (1.5 mt). These three countries account for 58.7 per cent of all the beef exports in the world. In 2014, India exported buffalo meat worth $4.8 billion and earned more revenue than Basmati rice exports.

“India is unique compared to other Asian markets because of the huge domestic demand unlike other countries which have to depend on exports. It is still emerging due to complexity of its food market,” said Kant.

DuPont worked with Parakh Agro to introduce a film pouch for UHT (ultrahigh temperature processed) milk to increase its shelf life to 90 days.

Working closely with DuPont, UltraTech Cement introduced moisture proof Flex SafePack for its cement bags to withstand harsh environmental conditions.

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