HYDERABAD: The poultry industry in the state is making a quick shift from its conventional live chicken business to the newly growing 'processed chicken'. With the expansion of global fast food outlets such as KFC and McDonald, the poultry industry found a huge scope for enhancing their share in processed chicken market.
Traditionally, the live chicken occupied major share of Indian poultry business. With consistent demand from both rural and urban areas, the industry made stable business out of it. But, the recent decline in demand for live chicken and rapid growth of food chains in cities caused a major shift in the priorities. Currently, 95 percent of the poultry business comes from live chicken, while five percent comes from processed chicken. However, the latter has been making a stable progress in the last few years, Ranjith Reddy, president of Poultry Breeders Association of Telangana said.
Despite its ups and downs in the recent past, the poultry industry is rapidly expanding in Telangana and other South Indian states. Subsequently, the demand for poultry feed has also been increasing consistently. However, the industry is currently facing difficulties in procuring it, owing to restriction on import of feed and their growing prices within the country.
Speaking at a press conference here on Monday, the representatives of several poultry companies appealed to the government to relax norms with regard to import of poultry feed. They also requested the government to consider their long-lasting demand of agriculture status for the poultry industry. Harish Garware, president, Indian Poultry Equipment Manufacturers' Association (IPEMA), said "Agriculture status would provide much needed support to this growing industry." He said the Indian poultry industry has annual business worth ₹90,000 crore.
