India exported meat worth USD 568 million in April-May

Indian Express online reported the export earnings of Indian meat exports in April - May 2016 of US$568 million. However statistics from APEDA indicate the unit value of buffalo meat fell from US$3,147 per tonne to US$2,887 per tonne, a drop of 8%. Unit values have been falling each reporting year since 2013-14 and unit values are now down in the leading export market of Vietnam from US$3,425 per tonne in 2013-2014 to US$3293 in 2015-2016 reporting period. Overall volumes also fell in 2015-2016 to  1,314,158  tonnes, down from 1,475,526 tonnes  in 2014-2015. All market unit value in 2015-2016 was US$3,096 per tonne. Vietnam and Saudi Arabia are higher value markets and clearly very important to India and APEDA has announced a visit of the Indian Prime Minister to Vietnam next month. Indonesia has approved import of Indian buffalo but there is some resistance by Indonesian cattle producers concerned with quarantine, biosecurity issues.