India likely to export dairy products to Russia by Dec

India will start exporting dairy products to Russia from December, after a proposed inspection of dairy manufacturing facilities by a team of experts from Russia and relaxation of norms by its phytosanitary authority Rosselkhoznadzor. The Russian team is slated to meet India's commerce minister this September.

Although Russia had opened up its market for India's dairy products, the latter could not send shipments due to strict norms set by Rosselkhoznadzor. The draft guidelines said, "Raw milk used for the dairy production shall originate from the farms which are comprised of at least 1,000 cattle."

Vasiliy Lavrovsky, head of the Directorate for Veterinary Inspections in the Framework of the International Cooperation and the World Trade Organization (WTO), argued that this requirement was introduced in the draft agreement, as Indian cattle are infected with dangerous diseases such as foot and mouth disease, brucellosis and tuberculosis.

Lavrovsky added that controlling animal diseases is easier in big farms than in small ones. The key elements of such a system shall be individual tagging of animals, traceability of their movements and monitoring of their health and milk safety.

"The minimum number of cattle clause is a non-starter and irrelevant today when the whole world negotiates trade in terms of quality. Once quality is assured, Russia should not have any problem in importing dairy products from India. We would be able start exports immediately after norms are liberalised," said R S Sodhi, chairman, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd, which produces and markets Amul brand milk and dairy products.

Amul started negotiating trade terms with a couple of Russian importers immediately after Russia's dairy market access was thrown open for Indian exporters early this year.

India's negotiating team headed by Guruprasad Mohapatra, director-general of the department of commerce, said, "Dairy exporters are facing difficulty because of the clause as only two herds of such size exist in India and that restricts the possibilities of dairy production for the Russian market."

Assuming significance of India's dairy exports to achieve bilateral trade to $30 billion by 2025 against $10 billion at present, both sides have agreed to hold negotiations on this issue in the September meeting.

Dairy exporters believe that the Russian authority might reduce the minimum number of cattle to 500 or even 100 if not omitted the clause fully. In the meeting, the export of buffalo meat is also scheduled to be discussed at length.

According to sources, Parag Dairy and Dynamix Dairy Industries are the only two dairies conforming to the 1,000 cattle requirement of the Russian authority. But the commerce ministry is yet to sign a protocol to start exports to Russia. “We explained that we should be allowed to export while the Centre continues to engage with Russia to bring new suppliers onboard. Why should other players determine if the protocol should be signed? Our facility received the approval and we made it clear that those losing out should not decide our chances. If Russia is suggesting anything on the milk handling process, we should take it positively,” said Shirish Upadhyay, Senior Vice-President (Strategic Planning), Parag Milk Foods Pvt. Ltd.

While Russia is keen on buffalo meat and dairy products among others, it is interested in exports of poultry, pork and bovine hides to the Indian market apart from grain and beans.