Exports of poultry products such as eggs and egg powder have registered a 43 per cent growth at $81 million in the first six months of the current financial year. In the same period last year, the value of the poultry shipments stood at $57 million.
Exporters said strong demand from countries such as Sri Lanka, Malaysia and from traditional markets in West Asia such as Oman among others have contributed to the growth in the segment. Global factors including the impact of the Ukraine war also contributed to the demand for the Indian poultry products, said Valsan Parameswaran, Secretary, All India Poultry Exporters Association.
Sri Lanka bought close to 100 containers of Indian eggs in recent months, Parameswaran said. The number of eggs in each container is about 4.87 lakh. Malaysia has bought some 10 containers to meet the shortfall in the domestic supplies, he said.
Indian exporters are getting enquiries for eggs from Bangladesh and Afghanistan apart from others.. The demand from Bangladesh is likely to be catered by egg producers around West Bengal, he said. Also, the demand for the value-added products such as egg powders is on the rise, he said. About 10-15 lakh eggs are crushed daily to produce value-added products, Parameswaran said.
Prices surge
Egg prices have shot up by close to 40 per cent in the key producing regions of Namakkal on the reduction in placement by the producers. Egg prices are expected to decline from January-February onwards, due to higher placements in the recent weeks, and that may help the exporters in the new year, Parameswaran said.
Per the official data, India’s poultry exports touched a high of 6.64 lakh tonnes valued at $134.04 million during the 2022-23 fiscal, almost double from that of the previous year. In 2021-22, the poultry shipment volumes were 3.20 lakh tonnes valued at $71.03 million.
In the first six months, the shipments of poultry products touched 4.96 lakh tonnes valued at $81.21 million. Oman continues to be the largest buyer of Indian poultry products, accounting for close to a fourth of the shipment value, followed by Japan and Sri Lanka, which accounted for a tenth each. Other major buyers of Indian poultry products this fiscal include Maldives, Indonesia, United Arab Emirates and Qatar among others.