In an Exclusive Interview to POULTRY TRENDS magazine, Dr. Dinesh Tukaram Bhosale speaks about the Indian Poultry sector, the current challenges and future outlook. Also, his suggestions to the Government for helping Indian poultry industry and what needs to be done for disease-free poultry production. He also replies on the competition of plant-based meat and lab grown meat versus natural meat.

Excerpts of the interview are reproduced as follows:

Dr. Dinesh Tukaram Bhosale, Ph.D. (Animal Nutrition) is the Regional Sales Director – South Asia for AB Vista. He is also President of Vets in Private Welfare Association, Pune and member of Extension Council of Rajasthan University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences and member of Extension Council and Research Council of Maharashtra Animal Fisheries Sciences University. He was also the Chairman of CLFMA of India.

He can be reached at dtbhosale@gmail.com.

What is impact of Covid19 on Indian poultry sector?

As all of us know, due to false messages in social media in Feb 2020, broiler consumption dropped down drastically to almost zero. By the time Government and industry communicated right message to consumers, first lockdown started in last week of March 2020. It disrupted production and supply of broilers and eggs till June. Then slowly things improved till December 2020 and poultry production was back to 2019 level. We started producing 36 crores broilers per month!

Bird flu was our unexpected guest in 2021 and affected poultry consumption in first two months of 2021. Then second wave of covid started which again affected supply chain of broilers and eggs. Skyrocketing soybean meal prices added fuel to it. It resulted in reduction of placements all over India. Poultry feed millers and farmers started using alternative protein sources. But there is limit to it. Now monthly broiler production is down to 32 crores and prices of broilers are good – in profitable zone, but third wave and recent news of first human death due to bird flu may affect sentiments of consumers again. Poultry consumption will also go down by 30 to 40% due to festivals in next three months.

Has there been any positive development during this period?

Yes, there was good news also! Indian consumers understood importance of eating poultry and eggs to improve immunity. Due to lockdown, although consumption outside home went down, but consumption inside home went up. That’s increased per capita consumption of eggs and poultry meat. It’s cheaper to eat at home than in hotel! Online delivery companies like Licious, Fresh to Home, etc. played important role. Now many local poultry companies have also started online delivery platforms in addition to their existing offline physical shops. Consumers eats more when meat and eggs are available at doorstep/online and already in their refrigerator. This will have long term effect on Indian poultry sector.

Focus will shift from production to marketing. From the current poultry trends, it’s expected that by 2026, at 12-15% growth rate, broiler production will be doubled in India. More and more consumers will start eating poultry and eggs and frequency and quantity will go up.

What help Indian poultry industry is getting from Government during this difficult period?

The commercial poultry production in India is led by private sector and it didn’t take support from Government till first outbreak of bird flu. Whenever disease calamities came, Government came and helped them. Industry can’t revive if government doesn’t help now. Central Government has always listened to associations from Indian poultry sector. But Ätmanirbhar package last year disappointed poultry farmers by not giving any direct help. As Indian poultry is part of Indian agriculture, whatever help maize and soybean growing farmers get, it benefits poultry farmers also.

Any suggestions to the Government for helping Indian poultry industry?

All vaccines should be available in India to prevent diseases including bird flu. Import duties on all imported products should be reduced to zero or minimum for next three years. Selling prices are controlled by traders instead of producers. There should be mechanism like MSP so that farmers get assured price which is above production cost. Duty-free Imports of soybean meal and maize (GM or non-GM) should be allowed during lean period. Online commodity trading should be monitored to avoid speculations which happened during last few months. When global poultry industry can use GM maize and SBM, why not India?

Government should promote poultry and egg consumption to boost immunity, Startup India and other Government schemes should encourage young generation to enter into production and marketing of eggs and poultry.

Poultry industry has great potential to give employment in rural and urban India. Government should help to increase acreage and productivity of maize and soybeans by replacing wheat, rice, sugarcane, etc.

What needs to be done for Disease-free poultry production?

This is very important question! Poultry industry has excelled in breeding and feeding parameters. But we need to do lot to improve biosecurity in poultry farms. It will help us to prevent viral diseases like bird flu and ND.

Poultry industry should come forward and help government to prepare database of poultry farmers. This will help Government to plan and implement effective disease surveillance program. Good thing is that bird flu testing is now decentralized and we can get results faster. This will help to create disease free compartments whenever outbreak happens. Although allowing vaccination is short term solution, biosecurity is more important to prevent bird flu outbreaks.

Industry and farmers should reduce use of antibiotics voluntarily and data should be maintained whenever antibiotics are used. Government should do regular testing for antibiotics residues in poultry meat and eggs and should communicate results with producers and consumers. Self-regulation is the best way!

Government has always helped farmers to fight false allegations from animal welfare organizations. Government should work closely with poultry farmers to improve water quality, safe disposal of carcasses, etc. Farmers should follow regulation of pollution control board and FSSAI food safety. Farmers should also follow feed safety and quality regulations, as it is best way to control antibiotic residues and mycotoxins.

For government, disease eradication is priority. There is need to create models to demonstrate benefits of these good practices to industry and poultry farmers. Funding from CSR and government schemes should be used for it. Veterinary colleges will be ideal partner for these models so that budding vets can learn about it at right time. Consumers, medical doctors, dieticians, school children, animal welfare organizations, politicians, government officers should be invited to look at it. It’s very important to convey safety and economics of poultry and egg production to consumers. Effective partnership is needed among farmers, industry and government.

Do you think that plant-based meat and lab grown meat will be a threat to poultry industry in India?

Very good question. Poultry industry and farmers should not run away from this issue. There is not at all competition between traditional poultry meat and this “New” meat. In foreign countries, its acceptance is very slow and media hype is more, despite 100% of them are non-veg eaters. In India, who will eat this meat? Veg population will never like to try it and non-vegetarians will not buy nakli meat when asli meat is available at cheaper price. Startup companies will get funds to bring out such products, but consumption in India in next ten years will be very minimal. There is no threat or competition from it! Although organized dairy farms had started two decades back, what’s their contribution in India’s milk production today – less than one percent! Hardly 2-3% of Indian population will be potential market for plant based/lab grown meat. They will also try it once in a while!

No threat or competition to traditional poultry meat from plant-based meat and lab grown meat.

What is future outlook for poultry sector in India?

Potential is great! Around five crores population is dependent on poultry farming directly or indirectly. Around 5 million MT of poultry meat was produced in 2019 (85000 crores worth), but per capita consumption is still at 3.4 kg. Around 109 billion eggs were produced in same period (45000 crores worth), but per capita availability is 80 eggs only.

As I said before, we can double or triple it from present turnover of 1,25,000 crores. 80% poultry production is in hands of organized players and 20% is backyard. Poultry integration model should be implemented for egg production and backyard poultry production to improve efficiency and to increase scale.  

Initial support from Central and State governments is needed to push it. Startup culture will help to market poultry products in best way. Poultry and egg consumption will increase faster in coming decade due to growing urbanization, increasing middle class and increase in per capita expenditure on animal protein. Research done by ICAR and Veterinary Colleges is not in sync with industry research. Cutting edge technology is needed in all fields of poultry production and marketing.

I will like to appreciate resilience and braveness of industry to fight calamities and to survive to supply cheapest protein source to our Indian population. All associations should come together in case of natural calamity. Scientists are not well prepared to answer questions posed by Animal welfare organizations. There is need of joint efforts. Instead of reactive approach, we should have positive approach to clear all myths about poultry and eggs in minds of consumers, especially new consumers.

What is the impact of covid 19 on balance sheet of Indian poultry companies?

Whether it’s small and big company, all are affected badly due to volatility in last 18 months. Good thing is that no company went bankrupt yet. Suppliers have helped companies to survive whenever needed by increasing credit term and keep supplying products. Very few companies reduced salaries. Most of the companies run their offices following strict laws of Covid19 during last eighteen months. Most of the companies took good care of their covid positive patients. Series of webinars were organized by different stakeholders to keep companies motivated and updated about happening at national and international level. Most of the companies used technologies like Zoom, Google Meet and MS Teams for internal and external communication. In fact empathy and camaraderie went up inside companies and with other companies in this difficult period. Banks need to be more open minded to give more loans to poultry companies. Government should control problems which industry can’t, like prices of maize, soybean meal, import duties.

I will like to thank collectors and other officers in each district for cooperating with poultry farmers to keep supplying poultry and eggs to consumers in last 18 months.

How industry and government can increase consumption?

Only 5% of chicken are processed and sold in chilled or frozen form. Rest is sold as live chicken. There is need to do active promotion of chicken and egg consumption in India. There is need to increase share of processed chicken. Government package can help to install modern processing infrastructure so that at least 50% of broilers are processed before reaching consumers. There are many misconception about eggs and chicken like use of hormones, antibiotics residues, birds in cages, desi eggs – among consumers. There is need of education of consumers, doctors, dieticians, chefs, teachers, etc. Associations should come forward for year-long active promotion through activities like cookery shows. Our exports are negligible.

As schools were closed, mid-day meals including eggs were stopped. Government should give eggs to police, doctors, nurses and other staff of hospitals, Jails, government offices. Poultry meat and eggs should be served in canteens of companies. There is need of development of ready to eat, ready to cook dishes. Poultry sector should learn from dairy sector about how to do value addition and marketing of products. Placements should be planned as per demand. There should be unity among poultry companies working in particular area. New talent should be attracted towards poultry farming.

Veterinary college can play important role of coordination among government and poultry farmers and also in training of poultry farmers. Poultry farmers should develop strong relationship with vets working in Animal Husbandry departments and also with politicians to take up demands with Government. There is need to change syllabus designed by VCI so that students learn more about poultry sector in last year. Industry and colleges should work with Women self-help groups and farmer producer companies and should help NGOs in promotion of poultry farming. Vets can play important role in growth of poultry sector in short term and long term period.

Conventional ways of training and social media should be used to reach large number of farmers and consumers. Every farmer has smart phone now-a-days and during lockdown he has learnt how to use social media like YouTube, Whatsapp and Facebook, etc. Industry should help NGOs working with farmers to improve profitability and productivity. There should be trust among all stakeholders who intends to work with farmers.