Flu a new hurdle in food exports

The second bird flu outbreak in India within a span of three years does not auger well for poultry exports from India, particularly to the US.

An Indo-US joint-statement, signed in March 2007, between George W Bush and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, had endorsed a work plan to provide for discussions on current regulations affecting trade in poultry among other food products.

However, now the prospects of poultry and meat exports to the US seem dim, particularly with the US further strengthening its regulations governing the import of food items, after reports of toxic pet food supply by few Chinese companies to the US last year.

According to David Lennarz, vice president of FDA Registrar Corp, a US-based export consultancy firm, India has hardly any presence as an exporter of food products to the US market, and now it is unlikely to get an export license to export poultry and meat products to the country.

"There are no poultry exports from India to the US at present, and there are little chances that it will happen. However, there are other items, like sea food, which India can export to the US. Chinese exports were earlier considered cheap, now they are considered cheap and unsafe," he said.

Meanwhile, the US department of health and human services in its website for avian and pandemic flu information has already notified the spread of highly pathogenic avian flu influenza among chickens in West Bengal.

India exported poultry products worth Rs. 316.9 crore during 2005-06, according to information available at the The Virtual University for Agricultural Trade website, a project of the government of Kerala.

The UAE has been the largest market for Indian poultry products contributing to 24 per cent of net poultry exports followed by Kuwait (14 per cent ) and Oman (11 per cent). Eggs and eggs-based products account for most of India's poultry exports.

According to Tapan Chattopadhyay, deputy director, Federation of Indian Export Organistion, West Bengal does not export poultry or meat products, but even then the impact of bird flu would be visible in other states like Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu.

"Even though India is not a major exporter of poultry products, the impact of bird flu in West Bengal will snowball to other parts of the country, due to rumors and apprehensions," he said.