Safety norms hit meat exports to Egypt.

New Delhi: India’s meat exports to Egypt, a key export destination, has been hampered by health concerns. A team of officials from Agriculture Produce and Export Development Authority (Apeda) is visiting the country on Wednesday for allaying fears over presence of any disease in export consignments.

A senior Apeda official told FE that the delegation would be meeting top Egyptian agriculture and health department officials for discussing quarantine and safety issues. Frozen meat exports from India have witnessed a steady growth in the last few years because of stern and prompt measures initiated by the government against spread of diseases in buffalo, sheep and goat. In Egypt, the export market for frozen meat, which was earlier dominated by Brazil , had been replaced by India in the last few years.

Vietnam along with Malaysia and Egypt are three top export destinations for India ‘s frozen meat products followed by middle-east countries. “There have been reports in the Egyptian media questioning the safety of frozen meat imported from India , but we stand by our product quality,”the Apeda official said.

Although in volume terms, India had exported just around 5 lakh tonne of mostly buffalo, sheep and goat meat to 60-odd countries in the last five years, growth in terms of value has been significant, more so in the last two years.

According to latest data compiled by Apeda, exports of meat and meat products are estimated to cross Rs 6,000 crore in 2009-10. Between, April-December 2009, India exported meat and meat products worth Rs 5,859 crore.

A note prepared by Apeda said that diseases like bovine sponginform encephalopathy and scrapie have never been reported in the country. “Our animals are not fed on meat and bone meal and also not stall feed, which makes virtually resistant to any major animal disease,”the Apeda official told FE.

India, which accounts for nearly 13% of world’s cattle population, half of buffalo population and 15% of goat population, rears most of its livestock on green pastures and is not stall fed.

India has consistently maintained that Indian meat is risk-free and safe. The country exports only deboned and deglanded frozen buffalo meat obtained by compulsory chilling and maturing of carcasses at low temperature. The demand for bovine meat in international market has sparked a sudden increase in exports from India in the last few years.

In 2006-07, meat and meat products exports from India were to the tune of Rs 3,279 crore, which increased to Rs 5,333 crore in 2008-09. The government has banned exports of beef and bone in meat of buffalo while it has allowed exports of sheep and goat meat and boneless buffalo meat

Source : Financial Express