Sharp decline in the domestic demand of frozen Indian buffalo meat has compelled the exporters of New Delhi to cut meat prices by 50 dollars per tonne to $1350 per metric tonnes, sources said.
They said that the Indian meat importers earlier this month (May), placed only a few orders in India that coerced them (Indian exporters) to revise their prices downward. "The local dealers and retailers had stopped buying Indian meat from us as they did not want to pay $1400 a ton for frozen meat," said a leading importer.
"Actually, the Indian exporters had increased their commodity prices up to $100 per tonne in the New Delhi market at the end of March after the conformation of deadly H5N1 influenza virus in Pakistan," he added.
"During April (last month), the meat prices in New Delhi shot up by $50 per tonne that brought the commodity price to $1400 per tonne and they completely cashed the negative impacts of bird flu situation in our country," said a Karachi-based importer.
Nevertheless, he said, the local dealers of meat refused to buy Indian meat due to price spike and still hundreds of tonnes of Indian meat is still lying at some cold storeages.
Importers informed that the meat demand from dealers have been slashed by almost 50 percent during the last one month which has affected the number of consignments as well.
"During the peak days of bird flu, we used to import 60 containers per month, which has now come down to 30 containers or 560 tonnes during the last one month," he remarked.
Sources have pointed out that some Lahore-based importers have started bringing their own consignments directly from India through the Wagah border.
Estimating the Indian meat demand in the country, one importer said that for every one million people there is a need of 5,000 tonnes of meat.
Commenting on the Indian meat price at the retail end, he said that Indian meat is available at Rs85 per kg which is much cheaper than the local meat which is available at Rs130 per kg.
The Indian exporters had increased the prices of their commodity just after the bird flu rumours as they already had sensed the situation, which was portraying that the meat demand in Pakistan would rise substantially in the coming days.
In this regard, a two-member delegation of meat exporters had also visited Pakistan and spent most of its time in Karachi to carry out a comprehensive survey regarding the Indian meat demand besides the aftermath of bird flu outbreak.
"After the survey, the team returned to India and reported that the London test reports had badly hit the domestic poultry industry and the masses there after avoided eating chicken meat despite the government's assurance that there was no presence of bird flu in the country," said the importer.
Contrary to that, the meat trade with India, started in September (2005), gained momentum with the passage of time. However, the Indian exporters had been increasing their commodity's prices gradually and some 325 dollars per tonne had been increased during the past seven months.
It may be mentioned here that India's frozen buffalo meat exports stands at around 500,000 tonnes annually, while some 25 countries, including Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Malaysia, Indonesia, Afghanistan via Karachi and a number of other countries are importing the Indian commodity.