Tamil Nadu: Namakkal egg exports record impressive growth

COIMBATORE: The poultry hub of Namakkal has made remarkable progress in egg exports by surpassing its own records every passing year.

Registering a significant growth, the ‘egg city’ of India exported 11.36 crore eggs till June this year. It was 6.55 crore eggs in the whole of last year.

With five more months left, the egg exports are expected to reach record figure’s as usually consumption increases during winter months.

In a positive transformation, the poultry hub is gradually becoming a global player in egg exports, a resounding success.

“For long, the poultry farmers from this region were exploring the possibility of reaching out to global consumers. Notably, the recent export of one crore eggs to the US proved a turning point. Another consignment of 20 lakh eggs sent from Namakkal is likely to reach the US in two more weeks. Egg exports have doubled by 50 per cent this year,” said ‘Vangili’ Subramaniam, president of Tamil Nadu Egg Poultry Farmers Marketing Society.

Until the COVID-19 pandemic; the egg exports went through marginal ups and downs, before starting to witness a phenomenal rise in the year 2022.

According to data from the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC) egg exports were at 2.99 crore in 2015, 2.48 crore in 2016, 2.32 crore in 2017 and 2.18 crore in 2018.

It was during the pandemic; the poultry sector plunged into crisis as exports crashed to 1.44 crore in 2019 and further down to 79 lakhs in 2020 before scaling up to 1.43 crore in 2021. From the following year, the growth phase kicked off with 3.03 crore in 2022, 5.68 crore in 2023 and 6.55 crore in 2024.

The monthly egg exports for this year also indicated a steady rise from 6.56 lakh in January, 7.22 lakh in February, 9.77 lakh in March, 14.45 lakh in April, 15.87 lakh in May and 14.31 lakh in June.

Even though the current scenario of exports looks goods, the poultry farmers believe they could reach great heights with the support of the government by marketing their produce.

Following an increase in exports, production is likely to go up further with more poultry farms coming up in Namakkal.

“By next year, production may increase by another 50 lakh eggs. From five crore eggs produced daily during the pandemic, production increased to up to 7.5 crore eggs now and is poised for further growth in the coming months. Over the years, the number of poultry farms increased by 30 per cent with the entry of several small-scale farmers into the sector,” said Vangili.

However, C Panneerselvam, president of the Egg Exporters Association, sounded caution over an exponential increase in egg production by saying,

“The volume of egg exports has come down by 30 per cent this month as compared to June. Egg exports are a seasonal business. Even in the US, considered to be a market with high growth potential, exports failed to pick up as expected due to low demand. Rather than just increasing production by opening new poultry farms, the focus should be on finding better market avenues,” he said.

Currently, there are around 1,200 poultry farms in the Namakkal region. Eggs from Namakkal are exported to the USA, Oman, Dubai and the Middle East countries.