India’s buffalo meat exports have faced a downfall of 15 percent - the lowest in six years - as demand from world’s number one meat consumer China has dipped considerably. Though demand in China matters, the country is not known to buy Indian meat directly.
As for the dip, the government of China has periodically maximised Customs control over imports in the last few years as it cracks down on grey trade networks. This has hit the demand for Indian buffalo meat in places such as Vietnam, where some of the traders look for reselling to customers in China.
“There has been fluctuation in Chinese buying in the last few months which has reflected on export numbers,” stated Fauzan Alavi, vice-president, All India Meat & Livestock Exporters Association.
He said, “The overall buffalo meat exports in the financial year 2018-2019 could drop 15 per cent from the year before to 1.15 million tonne,the lowest since 2012-2013.”
He added that India's buffaloes were mainly used for dairy and were slaughtered for meat only after their milk productivity peaked. That makes the meat produced of lower quality than that obtained from beef cattle, and it is mainly used in processed food. The total Indian buffalo meat exports amount to about $4 billion a year.
Further, China officially does not allow imports of Indian beef, as it considers meat from India contaminated, which results in unstable and fluctuating demand in the international market for Indian beef, according to Sirajuddin Qureshi, MD, Hind Agro Industries Ltd, meat processor and exporter.
He, however felt that meat exports could ease in the latter part of the year.
Meanwhile, Monis Raza, director, ALM Group, stated, “Due to the trade war happened recently between US and China, China has restricted all the imports which resulted in drop down of meat exports and has incurred us huge amounts of losses and now our focus is currently on the Middle-East and South East Asia markets to compensate our losses.”
