India plans to up buffalo meat exports to Indonesia .

After having set a strong foothold in leading Asean (Association of southeast asian nations) member-countries, India is now eyeing Indonesia to boost export of buffalo meat to the region.

The idea is to increase Asean share in total buffalo meat export from India by ten per cent from about 40 per cent in three years' time. This is to be done by catering to huge demand that exists in Indonesia.

In 2010-11, India's total buffalo meat export went up by 43.3 per cent in volume at 7,09,437 mt vis-à-vis 4,95,019 mt in the preceding year while there was 53.3 per cent jump in export value at Rs 8,412.68 crore as compared to Rs 5,480.60 crore in 2009-10.

“Asean countries offer a huge market for Indian buffalo meat because of the region's proximity to India. Moreover, buffalo (bovine) meat is part of the free trade agreement that India signed with Asean and hence, these markets have opened up for exports in a big way, especially after 2010,” a senior official of agricultural and processed food products export development authority (Apeda) told Financial Chronicle.

Though Indian buffalo meat exporters are in talks with Indonesian importers since Asean pact came into effect two years back there has been more sincere efforts in the recent past when Apeda led a huge delegation of Indian exporters to Indonesia in March 2012 to work out the modalities.

Out of the top five export destinations for Indian buffalo meat, three are Asean countries and Vietnam lead the race with a market share of 14.9 per cent followed by Malaysia (12.4 per cent) and Philippines (6.1 per cent).

Asean includes Vietnam, Malaysia, Philippines, Myanmar, Thailand, Indonesia, Brunei, Singapore, Cambodia and Laos and Indian buffalo meat is sold in seven countries except Indonesia, Cambodia and Laos.

The India-Asean FTA came into effect from January 1, 2010 and included elimination of tariffs for about 4,000 products that include electronics, buffalo meat, chemicals, machinery and textiles. Out of this, duties on 3,200 products would be reduced by December 2013, while duties on the remaining 800 products will be brought down to zero or near zero levels by December 2016. India has largest livestock population in the world. It has about 98 million buffaloes, which is 57 per cent of total population in the world. Buffalo meat is the major item of Indian meat export generating huge revenue in animal products sector. The popularity of this is largely because it is low in calories and cholesterol. Besides, it is almost two-three times cheaper than mutton and goat meat.

Source : mydigitalfc.com