 "India's exports first buffalo meat consignment to Russia after agency approval")
Within two weeks of stationing its inspector here, the Russian government’s service for veterinary and phytosanitary surveillance, Rosselkhoznadzor, has approved the first consignment of buffalo meat import from India.
The first lot, which left a few days ago, is of 16 containers weighing 409 tonnes. The consignments were from two of four Indian units approved for such shipment, Fair Export (India) Pvt Ltd (FEIPL) and Frigerio Conserva Allana Pvt Ltd (FCAPL). All the products will go via the port at St Petersburg, to cold-store facilities.
FEIPL, a unit of Amroon Foods, is based in Ghaziabad. FCAPL is part of the Mumbai-headquartered Allana Group. Inspections are underway at the two other Indian plants approved by the Russian agency.
After a fairly long ban period, Russia formally allowed import of buffalo meat from India in December 2014, coinciding with President Vladimir Putin’s visit.
There is stiff competition from Brazil, the largest buffalo meat supplier to Russia. Hardly half of Russia’s meat supply is met from domestic production, which was 12.7 million tonnes of livestock and poultry output in 2014.
“The Brazilian currency, the real, has depreciated 30 per cent in one year. Hence, meat export from Brazil has become cheaper, unlike a few years ago when Indian buffalo meat export was cheaper. Hence, it would be difficult for Indian exporters to even achieve $100 million worth of buffalo meat export to Russia in 2015-16,” said a senior industry official.
The first lot, which left a few days ago, is of 16 containers weighing 409 tonnes. The consignments were from two of four Indian units approved for such shipment, Fair Export (India) Pvt Ltd (FEIPL) and Frigerio Conserva Allana Pvt Ltd (FCAPL). All the products will go via the port at St Petersburg, to cold-store facilities.
FEIPL, a unit of Amroon Foods, is based in Ghaziabad. FCAPL is part of the Mumbai-headquartered Allana Group. Inspections are underway at the two other Indian plants approved by the Russian agency.
After a fairly long ban period, Russia formally allowed import of buffalo meat from India in December 2014, coinciding with President Vladimir Putin’s visit.
There is stiff competition from Brazil, the largest buffalo meat supplier to Russia. Hardly half of Russia’s meat supply is met from domestic production, which was 12.7 million tonnes of livestock and poultry output in 2014.
“The Brazilian currency, the real, has depreciated 30 per cent in one year. Hence, meat export from Brazil has become cheaper, unlike a few years ago when Indian buffalo meat export was cheaper. Hence, it would be difficult for Indian exporters to even achieve $100 million worth of buffalo meat export to Russia in 2015-16,” said a senior industry official.
"India replaced Vietnam to emerge the world's largest supplier of buffalo meat in global markets last year. For several years, our buffalo meat exports have been rising by 25-40% annually. This year, we would surpass $6 billion," said Ajai Sahai, director-general of the Federation of Indian Export Organisations. India's export of buffalo meat was $4.35 bn (Rs 26,458 crore) in 2013-14, at 1.45 million tonnes. This was largely to Vietnam, Malaysia, Egypt, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.