COSTLIER BUFFALO MEAT FOR FESTIVE SEASON PREDICTED

P.VIJIAN
NEW DELHI, Aug 29 (Bernama) -- Indian exporters are predicting that the price of buffalo meat will increase between five to 10 percent during the forthcoming festive season.

This is based on the rising global price of the bovine meat recently. The price of buffalo meat has jumped about 18 percent since last year due to the rising cost of breeding and the growing demand worldwide.

"The price is likely to increase by five to 10 percent in the coming
months," said Sirajuddin Qureshi, the managing director of the Hind Agro
Industries, a major buffalo meat exporter in India.

"Other than the raw materials for breeding the buffaloes, clean processing
the meat and export processing have also gone up.Buffalo meat will thus be
higher across the world market," he told Bernama.

Malaysia is the largest importer of buffalo meat from India.The country
imports about 80 percent of its regular needs or 45,000 tonnes per
annum.

Currently, the price of buffalo meat is RM8,580 per tonne (US$$2,600 per
tonne).

"With the global rise, the domestic price of buffalo meat will also
increase due to costlier raw materials, feeding and rearing inputs," said A.S
Rawat,the general manager (Livestock Division)of India's Agricultural and
Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA).

He also said exports to Malaysia could increase by 10 to 15 percent as per
the current order book and India was ready to meet the demand.

India, the world's fourth largest producer of buffalo meat, ships about
500,000 tonnes of the frozen meat, worth nearly RM2.3 billion (US$700) million,
largely to the Gulf countries, Malaysia, Mauritius and the Philippines.
--BERNAMA