Farmers call for non-infected zones as egg exports fall

COIMBATORE: Following the outbreak of bird flu in Northeast states, Gulf countries had banned poultry products from India for most part of 2008-09 and it led to fall in egg exports from Namakkal zone during the year. To facilitate export of eggs from non-affected regions, the farmers in Namakkal have called for compartmentalisation of farms or separate zoning of each state.

Namakkal, which is the poultry hub of India, reported a drop of 10.15% in egg exports last year compared to the previous year. Data compiled by National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) showed the region exported 10,986 lakh eggs in 2008-09 against 12,228 lakh eggs in the previous year.

The region, which accounts for 90% of the total egg exports from the country, is said to have suffered due to the ban
on imports in the Middle East. It was imposed though there were no reported cases of Avian influenza outbreak in Namakkal zone.

���We are thousands of kilometres away from Tripura, the place where the flu outbreak started and still we are not able to export to Middle East countries because the whole country is treated as one zone,��� said KS Ponnuswamy, proprietor of KSP Feeds, Namakkal.

Since February 2006, when the first outbreak of Avian influenza was reported in India, the country has been facing a downturn in exports. But, it also paved way to explore other potential countries for export of eggs and Afghanistan turned out to be one.

In 2007-08, when the ban was lifted for the whole year, exports to Afghanistan and Africa almost doubled. However, last year was the worst affected with the ban lifted for only few days during November 2008.

���After the country declared itself bird flu free on November 4, 2008, an outbreak was reported on November 11, 2008 and thus the Middle East ban was present almost throughout the year,��� said VKS Sivakumar, MD, VKS Exports. His company holds a 70% market share in egg exports from India.

Namakkal zone was regularly shipping 30 lakh eggs to Gulf countries everyday before the ban. ���With newer markets, we could have grown three-fold in egg exports,��� said P Valsan, secretary of All India Poultry Products Exporters Association.

���But to achieve that our government should take proper steps by bringing the whole industry under single window system and establish a Poultry Development Board,��� he added.

Dr AT Venugopal, who is a technical consultant for poultry farmers in India, told ET that the state government should implement a Notifiable Avian Influenza free establishment within Highly Pathogenic Notifiable Avian Influenza free compartment according to terrestrial Animal Health Code of OIE, 2008.

���International trade is governed by WTO SPS agreement and OIE (World Organisation of Animal Health) is the guiding source for export-import risk analysis as per the international code. Export from NAI establishment within HPNA free compartment is 100% safe and free from risk,��� he added.

The Tamil Nadu Poultry Farmers Association president R Nallathambi said the government should facilitate implementation of international norms so that exports to Gulf countries can be revived. The zone has nearly 1,200 layer-egg producing farmers and around 2.35 crore eggs are produced every day.