UNITED NATIONS: India is the world’s third-biggest exporter of beef and is projected to hold on to that position over the next decade, according to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Organisation for Economic Cooperation (OECD).
India exported 1.56 million tonnes of beef last year and was expected to maintain “its position as the third-largest beef exporter, accounting for 16 per cent of global exports in 2026” by exporting 1.93 tonnes that year, OECD-FAO Agricultural Outlook 2017-2026 report released here this week said.
The type of beef exported was not specified, but the meat exported appeared to be mostly from buffaloes as the report specified the animal for imports by Myanmar from India.
India imported as much as 363,000 tonnes of beef last year, according to the OECD database.
The total world beef exports in 2016 was 10.95 million tonnes and was expected to increase to 12.43 million tonnes by 2026, according to the FAO.
On May 26, the Central government brought a notification by which sale and purchase of cattle in the cattle market for slaughter was banned. Several states including Kerala, West Bengal and Arunachal Pradesh, among others refused to implement it .
Meat sellers have complained of the adverse impact on their trade including experts that is to the tune of Rs 1 lakh crore.
On June 15, the Supreme Court had refused to stay the Central government’s notification banning the sale and purchase of cattle for slaughter from the cattle market.
Returning home to a village near Ballabgarh in Haryana, after shopping for Eid on June 22, a Muslim boy named Hafiz Junaid accused of carrying beef, was lynched by a mob on a local train.
Thousands of citizens across India later took to the streets to protest against the lynching of innocent Muslims in the name of ‘Gau Bhakti’ and other incidents of communal and caste-based violence.
PM Modi on June 29 had disapproved of the killings in the name of cow worship. “Killing people in the name of Gau Bhakti is not acceptable. This is not something Mahatma Gandhi would approve,” he had said.
The Outlook report ranked Brazil as the world’s top beef exporter, followed by Australia.
With agency inputs