Beef trade: India
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Exports
India’s rank in the world / 2021
From: May 29, 2021: The Times of India
See graphic:
Beef Exports: India’s rank in the world / 2021
The government’s attitude
2017 – 2024
SWAMINATHAN S ANKLESARIA AIYAR, May 19, 2024: The Times of India
What has been one of the most surprising events of Narendra Modi’s ten-year rule? BJP’s conversion from an opponent to supporter of buffalo meat exports.
In the initial years, there were reports of attacks by vigilantes on cattle traders accused of transporting cows for slaughter, often wrongly. The problem gathered steam as Uttar Pradesh moved towards its 2017 state election.
BJP won easily. As chief minister, Yogi Adityanath, a renowned cow lover, immediately cracked down on illegal slaughterhouses, even though these did not slaughter cows but buffaloes. Although every municipality was required by law to licence slaughterhouses for local consumption, some had failed to issue licences for years and so the void was filled by illegal ones.
Attacks by vigilantes shrank supplies of animals. Especially hard hit were buffalo meat slaughterhouses licensed for 100% exports. These had spearheaded an export boom, with exports touching a peak of $4.7 billion in 2014-15. These factories conformed to international physio-sanitary standards to qualify for entry into importing countries, which imposed rigorous checks. Some illegal slaughterhouses violated sanitary norms, but not the meat exporters.
Yet they suffered too. During a visit to the Unnao factory of Allanasons, a big meat exporter, shortly after Yogi came to office, its director Fauzan Alavi told me the supply of animals had plummeted 50% because of attacks by vigilantes on transporters. Uttar Pradesh was by far the biggest meat-exporting state, so the entire industry was in crisis.
Two local cattle transporters said vigilantes were roaming the main highways looking for cattle transporters, and the police turned a blind eye to their depredations. So, transporters took circuitous routes through minor roads to avoid attacks.
However, they insisted that the vigilantes were not Hindutva extremists but minor gangsters out to extort money. Lynchings were not the norm.
Dry buffaloes were sold by farmers to slaughterhouses, and their sale proceeds constituted a significant portion of dairy profits. In a column, I pointed out that vigilantes threatened not only the meat industry but also the associated dairy and leather industries. Together, the three are the state’s most important industries. I pointed out that the bull was the steed of Lord Shiva while the buffalo was the steed of Lord Yama, and no good Hindu should mistake one for the other. However, one had little hope of the policy changing.
Soon after, the licences of all the state’s buffalo meat factories were due for renewal. Rumours circulated of enormous possible extortion and shutdowns. Then, says Alavi, Yogi appointed a new officer in charge reputed for integrity. He renewed every licence without taking a penny. All this sounded too good to be true. During a later visit to Lucknow, the biggest cattle transporter in the state stated that there were no vigilantes roaming the streets and cattle transport was normal. Surely, I asked, police harassment was a fact of life. Well, he replied, the rules say not more than 12 cattle can be loaded per truck, while in practice everybody loads 18-20 animals and pays off the police who check. He would not call that harassment, and in any case, it had nothing to do with Hindutva.
Alavi claimed that the industry now had full support from the govt, which had scotched one major attempt to extort bribes. However, there was repeated resistance, even sabotage, by bureaucrats. Three small factories lost their licences. But in Haryana, another BJP state, 12 new meat export plants were licensed, showing that the party policy had truly changed. If matters were so good, why had meat exports stagnated at around $3 billion in recent years? Alavi said the big constraint was the prevalence of foot and mouth disease (FMD) in Indian cattle. Many countries prohibited or had a restricted quota for meat from countries with FMD, and the price of meat was much lower too. At the industry’s urging, Modi, in 2019, launched a National Animal Disease Control Program to increase milk yields and meat exports by controlling FMD by 2025. That program has made progress, but the elimination target date is 2030. Once achieved, says Alavi, meat exports could double or triple because India is highly competitive, and demand is high from countries like China and Indonesia.
BJP stresses the expected rise in milk yields rather than in meat exports. Despite resistance to meat export from some elements, the party seems to have understood that the dairy, meat, and leather industries are inextricably interlinked, and so all merit promotion. It is a surprising but positive development.
Judicial judgements
Serving beef in Delhi restaurants: The legal position
The Times of India, October 28, 2015, Oct 28 2015
Abhinav Garg
Law prohibits serving of beef
A year after it won the first election in 1993 to the newly-created Delhi assembly , the then BJP government passed a law banning cow slaughter. Since then, despite change of governments at the helm, The Delhi Agricultural Cattle Preservation Act 1994 has continued to remain on the statute books, with an occasional amendment to tweak rules.The Act is a stringent one since it makes the offences non-bailable and cognizable.
While there have been few prosecutions and convictions, the police have focused more on booking cattle thieves or those transporting the animals illegally than going after eateries serving beef.
Ostensibly , the law aims to preserve animals “suitable for milch, draught, breeding or agricultural purposes“ and makes killing of cows, calf, bulls and bullocks a punishable offence. The law is worded in such a manner that it is nearly impossible for beef to be served legally in a restaurant or eatery unless the owner can prove the meat is that of a buffalo and not of a cow.
For instance, section 7 of the Act prohibits “sale, purchase, disposal in any other manner of agricultural cattle“ and bars any person from buying or selling or otherwise disposing of any agricultural cattle for slaughter “knowing or having reason to believe that such agricultural cattle shall be slaughtered.“
This means restaurants serving beef run the risk of criminal prosecution even if they claim it was sourced from a state where it is legal to slaughter the animal. The next section (Section 8) of the Act tightens the screws even more by making it illegal to possess “flesh of agricultural cattle.“ Even if the “flesh“ is that of an agricultural cattle (cow, calf, bull, bullock) that has been slaughtered outside Delhi, the person found carrying it will be punished. “No person shall have in his possession flesh of any agricultural cattle slaughtered outside Delhi,“ it says.
According to the Act, only a veterinary officer or a police officer have the power of “entry , search and seizure“ to apprehend the accused or prevent cow slaughter in their jurisdiction. A police officer can enter, stop and search “any vehicle used or intended to be used for the export of agricultural cattle“ and seize the animal itself if he suspects it is headed for slaughter.
Persons indulging in transportation and sale of banned animals invite a jail term of up to five years and a fine of Rs 10,000 while those found in possession of cow beef may be jailed for a year.
Market
2014
The Times of India, Oct 06 2015
In 2014, India was the world's largest exporter of beef (including buffalo meat). A little over 2 million tons of beef was exported from India, which constituted more than 20% of the world's total export of bovine meat. India is also the fifth largest producer and the seventh largest consumer of bovine meat if one counts the EU as a single entity. The US leads the world in production, consumption and import of beef, while Brazil is second in production, consumption and exports.
