Poultry Industry Angered by Brazil's Import Claims

INDIA - The National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), an umbrella organisation representing large segments of the country’s poultry industry, is up in arms over a report from Brazil about a huge order for the import of chicken into India.

20 August 2008

3 minute read

Asia

According to the news report, the Brazilian Association of Chicken Producers and Exporters (ABEF) claimed that the potential for exports to India in the first year could amount to 300,000 tonnes of unprocessed poultry. It further noted that this amounts to 10 per cent of their global export and India would then overtake Russia, which has until now been the largest importer of Brazilian poultry.

The NECC is agitated that such imports will drastically affect the domestic poultry industry worth 400 billion rupees (INR), which is still reeling from the multiple crises of rising input costs and the outbreak of avian flu in the backyard poultry of West Bengal, reports The Economic Times.

Anuradha Desai, chairperson of Venkateshwara Hatcheries group and of the NECC, pointed out that retail prices in India for processed chicken range are INR75-80 per kilo (just under $2 per kilo) while retail prices in Brazil are at $3.90-8.00 (around INR160-320) per kilo. According to The Economic Times, these figures do not include the high freight cost.

“The very fact that they are ready to export to India in spite of this vast disparity in prices proves that they are desperate to get into the Indian market,” Ms Desai said. She added that the NECC would explore whether anti-dumping measures could be invoked.

The news agency report quoted the Brazilian agriculture ministry as saying that India’s need to import poultry had increased following the outbreak of bird flu and the subsequent culling of over a million chickens over the last few years.