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In response to Indian urging, a team of Russian phytosanitary agency officials will soon visit for inspection and approval of more units to handle processing and export of buffalo meat.
Russia opened its market for buffalo meat to India early this year. The first consignment was approved only in March by the inspector from Rosselkhoznadzor, the approvals authority, due to strict quality guidelines. The said inspector has approved only four units of two agencies, Fair Export (India) Pvt Ltd (FEIPL) and Frigerio Conserva Allana Pvt Ltd (FCAPL), after thorough inspection of their facilities.
Talks are on for more export. “The negotiations were initiated by the Indian side, to increasing import volumes of Indian animal products to the Russian market. Both sides discussed technical issues of Rosselkhoznadzor’s coming visit, to get familiar with the system implemented to control regulated products and to visit some of the plants willing to export animal products to the Russian market. It is important to develop a clear export schedule, taking into account pre-shipment checks,” said Vasily Lavrovsky, head of the Russian agency’s department for inspections.
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The initiative was taken by the Indian embassy in Russia, which pressed Rosselkhoznadzor for another round of inspections at plants willing to export.
In the first round of shipment in March, the two approved plants exported 16 containers, of 409 tonnes. FEIPL, a unit of Amroon Foods, is based in Ghaziabad. FCAPL is part of the Mumbai-headquartered Allana Group. Inspections are underway at two other Indian plants approved by the Russian agency.
Russia allowed import of buffalo meat after several years of suspension. The Russian authority’s pre-shipment checks of each consignment have proved a hurdle.
India faces stiff competition from Brazil, whose currency has depreciated immensely, making its exports competitive. 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 has replaced Vietnam to emerge last year as the world’s largest supplier of buffalo meat. For several years, our buffalo meat exports have been rising by 25-40 per cent annually. These were $4.35 billion (Rs 26,458 crore) in 2013-14, at 1.45 million tonnes. This was largely to Vietnam, Malaysia, Egypt, Thailand, Saudi Arabia and Jordan.
