Venkateshwara Hatcheries group chairperson Anuradha Desai has welcomed the decision of the Union finance minister to hike basic customs duty on import of poultry meat and meat preparations from 35 per cent to 100 per cent as it would safeguard poultry farmers against uneven overseas competition.
Desai, who is also the chairperson of National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC), has been campaigning to block the lifting of quantitative restrictions (QR) and low import duty on processed chicken and meat products. She had also sought support from Nationalist Congress Party chief Sharad Pawar and Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu.
"It is heartening to note that the finance minister has announced an increase in basic customs duty on import of poultry meat and meat preparations from 35 per cent to 100 per cent. NECC thanks the Government of India for understanding the concerns of poultry farmers and taking timely action to safeguard them against uneven competition," Desai said.
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Earlier, Desai had expressed fears that the large mountain of non-breast chicken portions in the cold storages in the US could be dumped on Indian shores.
Since non-breast chicken portions do not command a good price and, considering that the sale of breast portions covers the price of the chicken in the US markets, she feared dumping of other portions of chicken in the Indian market could hurt domestic poultry farmers.
The possibility of US chicken processing firms dumping into the Indian market was seen as a possibility as Desai claimed a mammoth 2 lakh tonne-plus was being held in stock in the US.
She had pointed out that in countries like Russia and Sri Lanka where the governments had lifted QR US companies had resorted to dumping, thus killing the industry in these two countries.