Mumbai: The country’s buffalo meat exports will reach close to Rs 40,000 crore over the next five years at an annual growth rate of 8 per cent, rating agency Icra said today.

“In the long-term, we expect buffalo meat exports to continue to report healthy growth, driven by improving infrastructure, a sizeable buffalo population, a relatively lower price of Indian buffalo meat, and steady demand in the international market,” Icra Senior VP – Corporate Sector ratings Sabyasachi Majumdar said.

“We estimate that the buffalo meat exports will grow to around Rs 40,000 crore by FY21, at an annual growth of 8 per cent,” Majumdar added.

While India has been exporting buffalo meat for almost two decades, it gained momentum only in the last decade.

“This can be attributed to factors like increasing demand from developing countries, including China, Vietnam and Thailand among others, slaughtering method meeting religious requirements of certain ethnicities, price competitiveness, high buffalo population, and low domestic consumption,” Majumdar said.

Within India, Uttar Pradesh accounts for the highest share (28 per cent) of the total buffalo population and has also emerged as the leading buffalo meat-producing state, housing around 60 per cent of the total standalone slaughter houses, standalone meat processing units and fully-integrated meat processing units, the report revealed.

Indian buffalo meat exports have grown to Rs 26,682 crore in FY16 from Rs 3,533 crore in FY08, accounting for 20 per cent of the world’s total buffalo meat exports (in volume terms).

The country has also become the largest volume exporter of buffalo meat, overtaking Brazil and Australia.

PTI