India-Meat and poultry news.

INDIA-DROP IN EGG EXPORTS.

India’s egg exports dropped over 70 per cent year-on-year to 6 billion eggs in 2008, as demand for the country’s poultry products fell sharply due to successive bird flu outbreaks, trade officials told Business Standard.

"Our [poultry] sector has incurred huge loss because egg exports had come to a halt following outbreak of bird flu in eastern and northeastern India," Brij Mohan, senior manager, Venkateshwara Hatcheries said. Although most importing countries from the region have since started buying Indian eggs, the quantity is down to almost a quarter of the earlier trade.

Mr Mohan said West Asian countries had stopped buying eggs from India after the country first reported bird flu in 2006 in Maharashtra. The second outbreak was reported in 2007 in Manipur, the third one in West Bengal and Assam in late 2008, while the disease broke out for the fourth time in Sikkim last month. "Earlier we used to export 30 containers [1 container = 500,000 eggs) of eggs per day. Currently we export only 8-10 containers," Mr Mohan said.

However, Rick Thaper, treasurer, Poultry Federation of India said the Indian poultry sector has incurred loss mainly because the country is under a single poultry zone. "Zoning is a must to keep poultry sector booming," Mr Thaper said. Unlike China, India’s poultry sector is not divided into zones, therefore if any part of India is hit by bird flu, the entire country’s exports are affected.

Although bird flu was reported in eastern and northeastern India, exports from southern India too came to a standstill, as the entire country is in a single zone. About 90 per cent of India’s total egg exports are from southern states. "The Indian government has not been very practical in handling the bird flu situation. India has huge potential for exports, so government should give proper direction to the poultry sector," he said.

In 2008, India exported six billion eggs but exports could have been much better if importing countries had not banned purchase of poultry products from India, said a spokesperson for a major poultry farm.

Business Standard reports that India is the fourth largest egg producer in the world producing 48 billion eggs annually. India has huge potential for egg exports, as compared with United States, one of the major exporters. The European Union, USA and Brazil are the biggest exporters of eggs in the world

INDIA - The National Meat and Poultry Processing Board (NMPPB) has been set up to ensure meat and poultrymeat is safe and that its production does not harm the environment.

The vision of the new National Meat and Poultry Processing Board (NMPPB) is a focused approached and intensive efforts are required to address the issues related to:

· Production of hygienic, safe and wholesome meat/meat products

· Harmonization of domestic standards with international standards

· Develop uniform and effective meat quality testing systems in the country, and

· To address the environmental pollution issue arising out of the present conditions in the meat industry.

There are lacks of facilities in the country for utilizing animal waste materials for processing into by-products and turn it into value added products. Improper disposal of these wastes create a public nuisance and often pose a serious threat of environmental pollution and health hazards. If by-products/rendering plants are established in major cities as part of abattoirs, it can generate revenue and can tackle the problem of pollution and waste disposal.

The key areas of work for NMPPB will be:

· Helping the industry in setting up/modernization of abattoirs by providing technical consultancy for production of hygienic meat and meat products and for utilization of slaughterhouse wastes to prepare animal by-products with value addition

· Setting up quality control laboratories and analytical laboratories for meat and meat products to meet the required domestic and international market standards

· Promoting and training of meat producers and entrepreneurs to adopt Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP), ISO-22000 in meat production

· Setting up a mechanism for implementation of the existing regulations and laws in India on meat and meat production, processing and marketing

· To undertake market surveys and help the industry to create market intelligence, data base and its dissemination on regular basis for improvement of the meat sector

· To provide help for research and for setting up training institutions to train workers, technicians, managers in meat and meat processing industry

· To help industry to establish infrastructure for backward and forward linkages for trace-ability of meat/poultry meat processing sector of India

· Work as a Central/National hub to address issues related to Meat and Poultry processing sector for its systematic and proper development.