India’s poultry exports up at record $184 million on demand from West Asia, Lanka

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India’s poultry exports touched a record $184.58 million (₹1,530 crore) during the 2023-24 financial year on demand for products such as eggs and egg powder from countries such as Oman and Sri Lanka. During 2022-23, India’s poultry exports stood at $134.04 million (₹1,081 crore).

Factors such as the Ukraine crisis and the earthquake in Turkey, which impacted the production and shipments to West Asia, helped India export more poultry products during the year, said Valsan Parameswaran, Secretary, All India Poultry Exporters Association. However, with the production returning to normal in those countries, Indian products are finding it tough to compete in the overseas markets as the prices have moved up.

Expensive in Gulf now

“The demand has slowed now. We are expensive in the Middle East market by about $4-$5 per box of 360 eggs each compared to other origins such as Turkey and Iran and even sometimes Ukraine. The government should provide some incentives to the produce-exporters to help sustain the growth and also the markets,” Parameswaran said.

Also, the poultry exporters are looking forward to the government support to tap new markets such as Russia, Indonesia and Malaysia among others, Parameswaran said.

West Asia is the major market for Indian poultry products with Oman being the largest buyer accounting for close to a third of Indian exports. UAE and Qatar are the other major destinations in the West Asia. Sri Lanka has emerged as the second largest buyer of Indian poultry products during 2023-24 followed by Maldives.

Need for quality control lab

Parameswaran said setting up a dedicated laboratory for quality control in the major production hub of Namakkal can help reduce the costs for producers and exporters. Currently, producers are dependent on the lab in Bengaluru, he said.

Indian poultry exports, which stood at ₹768 crore ($117.42 million) in 2015-16, had subsequently touched a six-year low of ₹435 crore ($58.70 million) during 2020-21 only to rebound in the past three years.