Fuelled by burgeoning demand for broiler meat and eggs, the poultry industry in the country has finally attained the momentum to cross the one-lakh-crore rupee (one trillion; INR) mark soon, according to Hindu Business Line.

Business chamber, Assocham, has pegged the market size for the poultry products at INR1.32 trillion by 2015 against the current size of INR490 billion.

The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham), which has just released the study 'Trends in Domestic Poultry Segment', said that the market had been growing 20 per cent annually.

Broiler meat and table eggs accounted for most of the domestic poultry market. India was the third largest egg producer and fourth largest broiler meat producer in the world. It produced three million tonnes of broiler meat and about 2.86 million tonnes of eggs annually, the Assocham study said.

The study observed that there was a huge opportunity for foreign direct investment (FDI) in the poultry sector in areas like breeding, medication, feed production, vertical integration and processing.

Lack of infrastructure like power and transportation, however, posed major challenges, it said.

D.S. Rawat, Secretary-General of Assocham, commented on the report: "Driven by rising purchasing power, changing food habits, contract poultry farming and rapid urbanisation are certain key reasons for this constant upswing in this niche poultry sector."

The industry employed 20 million farmers backed by 1,000 hatcheries across the country.

Bird flu outbreak

The study reported: 'But sporadic bird flu outbreaks in different parts of the country along with lack of storage and processing facilities and rising prices of feed stocks including soy meal and maize have severely hit the poultry exports.'

Maize accounted for over half of the total production cost of poultry feed and the poultry sector consumes over 50 per cent of total maize production in the country. The Hindu Business Line report concluded that southern India had led the poultry industry, followed by Maharashtra in the West and Haryana and Punjab in the North.

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