India may need US soybean meal imports as poultry sector grows: CLFMA chief

New Delhi, Oct 6 (PTI) India may need to import soybean meal from the US in the future to meet rising demand from its rapidly expanding poultry sector, despite being currently self-sufficient, according to the livestock feed manufacturers' association.

Speaking at a curtain raiser event for the 17th Poultry India Expo, to be held in Hyderabad from November 25-28, Divya Kumar Gulati, chairman of the Compound Livestock Feed Manufacturers Association (CLFMA), said trade negotiations between India and the US could pave the way for imports of the protein-rich animal feed ingredient.

"There is trade negotiation going on between India and the US. As I mentioned earlier, a CLFMA delegate was just there in the US. So we have experienced, the US farmers are losing money, a lot of money because China has stopped buying. So they are in desperate situation at the moment, they need to sell somewhere," Gulati said responding to a PTI query.

He said a CLFMA delegation had recently visited farms in the US, where farmers were "losing money badly".

"We are assuming that the trade deal will be struck soon," he added.

Gulati emphasised that the US was looking to promote soybean meal, not soybeans.

"They are not trying to promote soybean, they are trying to promote soybean meal, not soybeans. Soybeans is GM (genetically modified), soybean meal is a non-GMO, non-living modified organism. So you cannot germinate a meal if you plant it also. It is a quality product," he said.

He pointed out that India had imported the product earlier as well. "We have earlier also imported the product into the country. So there is no harm if a quality product comes in, there is no harm in importing it because we have done it earlier also." India is currently self-sufficient in protein-rich feed ingredients due to increased production of Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS), a byproduct of ethanol production from rice.

"As of now, we have excess production of DDGS, a protein-rich byproduct of the ethanol production process from rice. Around 5.2 million tonne of rice has been diverted for ethanol production. So the by-product coming out of it is rice DDGS, which is high in protein. And that's what is replacing soybean meal also," Gulati explained.

However, he cautioned that the situation could change. "Currently we are self-sufficient, but if this is the rate of increase of the poultry sector, then we might fall short of raw materials in the future, as we are facing a situation with corn." Currently, import of GM soybean meal is permitted under specific quotas. Though India maintains a firm stance against the import of whole GM soybeans and other GM food crops, it allows the import of processed GM products such as soybean meal for use in animal feed, particularly for the poultry and livestock sectors.

The government first allowed import of 1.2 million tonne GM soybean meal in 2021 with additional import quotas granted in 2022 and discussions around further allowances continuing amid trade negotiations with the US. However, these imports remain tightly regulated and are limited to certain authorized ports with prior clearance requirements. PTI LUX LUX ANU ANU