Reuters :
Poultry firms expect demand to pick up after a ban on beef in Maharashtra, with other states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also aiming to toughen laws on livestock slaughter.
India is the world’s second largest beef exporter and fifth biggest consumer, although its majority Hindu community views cows to be sacred, and Modi’s BJP is pushing for legal steps to “protect and promote the cow”.
Maharashtra, which has a population of about 110 million, and sprawls over an area roughly the size of Italy, widened its ban this month to cover meat from bulls and bullocks. The states of Jharkhand and Haryana, also ruled by the BJP, are looking for ways to discourage slaughter of livestock.
Such curbs, which critics call the outcome of Modi loyalists pushing a Hindu agenda, will cost jobs and hit India’s exports, but spell good news for many poultry farms. India consumed 2.3 million tonnes of beef last year until October-higher than for the whole of 2013 — while exports were 1.95 million tonnes in the same period.
“We are expecting chicken consumption to increase in Maharashtra after a month, as it is a direct alternative to beef,” said Prasanna Pedgaonkar, deputy general manager at chicken processor Venky’s.
Pedgaonkar expects the measure to push up sales 5 percent for his firm, which owns the English football club Blackburn Rovers, from a daily figure of 1,500 tonnes now.
Poultry firms expect demand to pick up after a ban on beef in Maharashtra, with other states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) also aiming to toughen laws on livestock slaughter.
India is the world’s second largest beef exporter and fifth biggest consumer, although its majority Hindu community views cows to be sacred, and Modi’s BJP is pushing for legal steps to “protect and promote the cow”.
Maharashtra, which has a population of about 110 million, and sprawls over an area roughly the size of Italy, widened its ban this month to cover meat from bulls and bullocks. The states of Jharkhand and Haryana, also ruled by the BJP, are looking for ways to discourage slaughter of livestock.
Such curbs, which critics call the outcome of Modi loyalists pushing a Hindu agenda, will cost jobs and hit India’s exports, but spell good news for many poultry farms. India consumed 2.3 million tonnes of beef last year until October-higher than for the whole of 2013 — while exports were 1.95 million tonnes in the same period.
“We are expecting chicken consumption to increase in Maharashtra after a month, as it is a direct alternative to beef,” said Prasanna Pedgaonkar, deputy general manager at chicken processor Venky’s.
Pedgaonkar expects the measure to push up sales 5 percent for his firm, which owns the English football club Blackburn Rovers, from a daily figure of 1,500 tonnes now.
