Except the UAE, all other egg importing regions had lifted ban on Indian eggs after the government declared that the country was free from bird flu last August.

Now, after a gap of 16 months the UAE has also opened doors for Indian poultry products last week. National Egg Coordination Committee's (NECC) Namakkal zone vice chairman Singaraj said that India exports around 190-200 containers of eggs (4.75 lakh eggs per container) overseas including Africa and Afghanistan. With the UAE lifting the ban, he said the egg exports are likely to jump by 30% to 260 containers per month.

Before the bird flu outbreak in India, he said the UAE was the main customer buying 50-60 containers a month.

However, he ruled out any abnormal price increase of eggs in the local market owing to sudden orders flowing from the UAE. Already the egg prices have hit the roof following huge supply-demand gap in the local market on the back of inadequate egg production in poultry farms. “The farmers have already started placing layer chicks since February, which will start laying eggs after 24 weeks (a chick takes 24-weeks to hatch eggs),” he said.

Source: FinancialExpress