With a population of 1.2 billion, rising living standards and an expanding middle class, India is a market that cannot be ignored.
February 2012 will see the trade shows VIV India and ILDEX India come together to serve this strongly expanding market. VNU Exhibitions Europe and NCC Exhibition Organiser, together with Indian partner Inter Ads, will host India’s largest “Feed to Meat” platform.
Some 150 companies coming from 20 countries are expected to participate in the event at the Bangalore International Exhibition Centre. Exhibitors will include poultry breeding, slaughtering and processing companies, egg production and processing businesses, feed production and management concerns, animal health businesses and fish farming and aquaculture concerns.
The Feed to Meat concept looks at all stages along the meat production chain. These individual stages have changed as consumer demand has changed in various markets and India is one such market experiencing significant change.
Changing outlook
Despite a strong vegetarian heritage, consumption of broiler meat in India has grown by 10% per annum over the last decade and a half. The country is now thought to be the world’s fifth largest producer of broiler meat, with annual production standing at some 2.3 million metric tons.
While there remains variety in scale of production, some growers now have capacities in hundreds of thousands, and some are in the millions. Yet demand is outstripping the industry’s ability to supply, meaning that there is a need for expansion and greater efficiency, and that prices are rising.
Yet India remains one of the world’s lowest cost broiler producers and, over the next five to ten years, the country is expected to become an exporter of poultry meat.
But it is not simply a case that Indian consumers are purchasing more poultry meat, how they buy it is also changing. Annual per capita consumption currently stands at some 2.4 kg – far lower than in the US and Europe – so there is certainly room for further expansion. It remains primarily a wet market, yet over the next 5-10 years, the dressed market is expected to account for 25-30% of the total broiler meat market.
Growth in total output is expected to be in the region of 8-12% over the next five years.
Like broiler production, egg production in India has expanded significantly over the last two decades. The country is now the fourth largest egg producer in the world, producing 48 billion eggs per annum, yet annual per capita consumption stands at only 47 eggs per annum.
Against this background, VIV/ILDEX India 2012 should make for a lively event. Some 10,000 visitors are expected, primarily from India, but also from surrounding countries. Visitor and exhibitor numbers are expected to be 40% higher.
Special themes
Eggs!, seen at VIV Asia 2009 and VIV Europe in 2010, will be introduced to VIV/ILDEX India 2012. Together with national associations and egg producers, the organizers will hold a series of workshops and conferences.
To position the event as India’s feed hub, the special theme of Feedtech-Croptech will also be introduced at Bangalore.
“We consider it our responsibility to deliver knowledge and technology available worldwide on the effective use of commodities to Indian feed millers,” commented project manager of VIV/ILDEX India 2012 Mr Wara Rujataronjai.
