Indian Buffalo Meat Facts III

The “Pink Revolution” raging through Uttar Pradesh has been seeded, midwifed and nurtured by the Agriculture and Processed Foods Export Development Authority (APEDA) of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India.

The authority was created through the APEDA Act of 1985 to promote export of 14 groups of commodities listed in the First Schedule of the Act. Of these 14, APEDA seems to have prioritized the export of Meat and Meat Products over all others. The list in the Act begins with “Fruits, Vegetables and their Products”. In the Red Meat Manual of APEDA, the list is modified and begins with “Meat and Meat Products”.

Extract from the “Red Meat Manual” of APEDA

Extract from the APEDA Act 1985

FIRST SCHEDULE [See section 2(i)]

1.Fruits, vegetables and their products,

2.Meat and meat products,

3.Poultry and poultry products,

4.Dairy products,

Within the category of Meat and Meat Products, APEDA seems to have prioritized bovine meat, meat of cows and buffaloes, which now forms 62 percent of all meat (including poultry) produced in India and nearly 100 percent of all meat exported from India.

This has been achieved through intensive support and handholding of the buffalo-meat abattoirs by the APEDA and deep subsidies by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries. We shall have more to say on the role of APEDA and MoFPI in the next post.

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