Integrated poultry firm Amrit Group will set up a poultry hub in West Bengal that includes a feed mill and a processing unit, as part of its ₹500-crore expansion for the next two years.

It is entering the layer farming sector, post a ₹100-crore tie-up with UK’s Hy-Line International, a breeding and layer genetics company.

It also plans to export processed and ready-to-cook poultry products under its brand Fresco Pollo.

Expansion plans While smaller players are facing a squeeze on their margins due to rising feed costs and over-supply in the domestic market, bigger players have not slackened their expansion plans.

India, with a layer bird population of 22 crore producing 20 crore eggs a day, is the world’s third-largest egg producer.

The ₹3,000-crore Amrit Group is amongst the top four leading poultry players in India along with which includes Venky’s, Suguna and Shanti.

“Both the processing unit and feed mills in the poultry hub that we are setting up will be ready in the next few months. These units will be then expanded in a phased manner over the next two years,” K Ravindran, Chief Operating Officer, said.

As part of the tie-up with Hy-Line, Amrit has procured about 44,000 parent chickens of the Hy-Line breed, which will be farmed to produce an estimated 30 lakh layer birds during the year.

“We are aiming at a market share of 30 per cent in the layer segment by 2017-18, currently estimated at about 15 crore birds and valued at about ₹420 crore annually,” he told Business Line .

On the export front, it is set to enter the West Asian market by this year.

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