For the first nine months of FY26, the exports have nearly doubled y-o-y
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REUTERS
India’s poultry exports are set for a new record this financial year on robust purchases by countries such as United Arab Emirates, Indonesia and Japan among others. The re-opening of Dubai market for Indian poultry products is also aiding the demand trend, stakeholders said.
For the first nine months of FY26, the exports have nearly doubled year-on-year with shipments touching a record $237 million against same period of last year’s $119 million, as per the DGCIS data. In volume terms, the shipments have grown considerably to over 18.87 lakh tonnes (lt) over corresponding last year’s 6.96 lt.
Valsan Parameswaran, Secretary, All India Poultry Exporters Association, said demand from UAE, Oman and Dubai has pushed up the exports. Dubai, which is a major consumption centre, has opened up the market for Indian poultry after a gap of about 10 years and our products are competitively priced compared with Turkey and Iran, he said.
In fact, the shipment value to UAE has seen more than a three fold growth during April-December this year. UAE has displaced Oman as the largest buyer with shipment value exceeding $92 million during April-Dec this year over same period last year’s $23.14 million. Countries like Indonesia and Japan, which import egg powder from India have seen the demand going up during this period.
New markets
“While the UAE and Oman are big markets for Indian poultry, we are also trying to establish and make inroads into the newer markets like the CIS countries, which is a very big market,” said Divya Kumar Gulati, Chairman, CLFMA of India. “The confidence that we built up when we exported the eggs to the US last year is seen helping increase the overall shipments. We have been able to comply and that our quality is also improving,” Gulati added.
Besides the Gulf, Indian poultry exports have been going on to markets like Maldives and some West African countries, Parameswaran said. “Dubai is a good market for processed chicken, but it is occupied and dominated by Brazil and getting a foot hold is a challenge,” he added.
Gulati said “Though we have been able to successfully export the eggs and egg products, we have been lagging in the shipments of poultry meat as our cost of production is still high due to higher raw material cost when compared to other origins like Brazil. Though we have been able to export a few containers to the UAE, we are unable to match the price of Brazil. This lack of export competitiveness is what we have been also discussing with the government and urging them to set up or allow on export basis only like a EoU and meet price parity of raw materials of the world so that our final products are competitive enough”.
“If we want to have exports and at the same time grow our domestic consumption, we need to have the inputs at the parity of what the world levels are. Only then we will be competitive to export our meats. Our production efficiency is much better in case of table eggs, so we are able to compete,” Gulati added.
India is the second largest egg producer and the production was estimated at 149.11 billion, up 4.4 per cent from the previous year. The Indian poultry industry has been growing at 7-8 per cent per annum.
Published on February 27, 2026
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