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G. Gurumurthy

COIMBATORE, Nov. 27

TABLE egg exports from Tamil Nadu, looking buoyant right now, may bring new trade opportunity to the country's poultry sector reeling under excess supply syndrome. The egg shipment this calendar year may surpass the targeted 250 million eggs.

The average volume of the shipment from Namakkal, the country's high density poultry zone, has been reported to be in the order of 20 million eggs per month. It is expected to peak this month and the next pushing the total volume beyond the targeted volume, poultry industry sources said.

According to Dr P. Selvaraj, Chairman of the National Egg Coordination Committee's Namakkal Zone, the total egg shipment until October stood at 210 million eggs as against the 90.77 million eggs exported for the whole12-month period of last calendar year.

Layer egg export from the zone has surged in the past two years with the volume of shipment rising to 30.33 million in 2000 and then growing three-fold during last year.

Dr Selvaraj told Business Line that the buoyancy of the export trade and the market potential opening out for the Indian table eggs in the West Asian market has thrown greater opportunity for the layer egg producers in the region. And this has even set the poultry sector to pitch for a 20 per cent higher export target at 300 million eggs for 2003 in that area.

He is of the view that given the compulsion of the European poultry sector with cut in farm subsidy and the higher transportation cost incurred by the shippers from Brazil, Indian egg exports may gain greater heights. According to him, the annual volume of egg shipment from Namakkal over the next five years can touch 700 million eggs.

``What we are now looking at is securing the supportive infrastructure required to carry on this high volume egg exports from the region. Besides improving the quality of the eggs including the size of the eggs produced, the shippers would be looking to strengthen packaging and transportation,'' he said.

Dr Selvaraj said NECC was already working towards setting up a cold-storage base in Namakkal at a cost of Rs 4.5 crore. This would enhance the export capability of the poultry sector in the area. Among other facilities required by the exporting units are tools for grading eggs and pre-cooling and stamping them.

With the volume of exports moving towards its peak, the Namakkal zone is catering an average two container-loads (four lakh eggs each) a day this month and the number of containers would go up over the next few days to meet `Ramzan' consumption of poultry in West Asia.

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