New Delhi, Jan 15: Pig farmers and traders in the Northeast have opposed the Centre’s nod to the import of pork from the United States.
They feel the import of the presumably cheaper processed meat from genetically reared pigs in the US would kill the local market and deal a body blow to the pig farmers in the region.
Monoj Kumar Basumatary, the president of the Northeast Progressive Pig Farmers Association (NEPPFA) said the Centre should instead have focussed on improving breeding and the quality of feed for pigs and boosting credit availability for farmers in the country.
The Northeast accounts for almost 40% of the country’s pig population and produces nearly 1.3 lakh metric tonnes of pork annually.
Pork processed in the region is exported to Bhutan where killing pigs is not allowed and the best pork in the country is believed to be from the Garo Hills. Meghalaya and the other state governments in the region have taken steps to increase pig farming to meet domestic needs.
The decision to import pork from the US has come at a time when small and commercial pig farmers in the Northeast have been smarting from the impact of COVID-19 lockdowns and the outbreak of the African Swine Fever, NEPPFA said.
Assam rears 2.1 million pigs out of India’s 9.06 million, according to the 2019 livestock census. Other north-eastern states with sizeable pig populations include Meghalaya and Nagaland.
But the region imports pork from farms in Punjab and other mainland states to meet its domestic demand.
The US is the world’s third-largest pork producer and second-largest exporter, with global sales of pork and pork products valued at $7.7 billion. The pork deal is part of the revived US-India Trade Policy Forum held in New Delhi in November last year, where the two countries agreed to expand trade of some agricultural products, including US cherries, alfalfa as well as Indian mangoes, grapes, shrimp and water buffalo meat besides pork.
In the 2021 fiscal, the US exported more than $1.6-billion of agricultural products to India.