A crisis for eggs in Russia may well present an opportunity for Namakkal in Tamil Nadu.
Since the escalation of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022, India became one of the largest importers of crude oil from Russia. Now, if negotiations between both countries are successful, Namakkal in Tamil Nadu may well be an answer to the ongoing shortage of eggs in Russia. According to traders in Namakkal, a town near Salem that is called Egg City and reportedly exports 95 per cent of India’s table egg exports, talks are already on with Russia for the export of eggs.
This comes at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin issued a rare apology last month regarding the price hike and shortage of eggs. “I apologise for this, but this is a failure of the government’s work… I promise that the situation will be corrected in the near future,” Putin said according to a Reuters report. A combination of high inflation and sanctions imposed by the West led to the egg crisis, leading to its prices going up by 42 per cent in the last 12 months.
“Russia is going through a huge egg shortage and they have asked for eggs. We need government intervention. If it works out, Russia will be a huge market for us,” said Vangili Subramaniam, president of Tamil Nadu Egg Poultry Farmers Marketing Society. At present, Oman, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates are the top five countries to which India exports eggs.
“Russia is not yet open, it is just the beginning stage and it will be a huge quantity. We are requesting the government to speed up the process of tying up with Russia. Only dialogue is going here and there,” said Valsan Parameswaran, secretary of All India Poultry Products Exporters’ Association (AIPPEA). He added that, going by the demand in that country, the requirement for Russia may be over 50 containers a month.
India exported eggs worth $0.11 million to Russia during April-October, as compared to $0.01 million a year ago, commerce department data showed. India’s total egg exports nearly doubled to $53.37 million during the first seven months of the current financial year. However, experts indicate that exporting eggs to Russia may not be easy for India.
A senior government official said that when it comes to human health, countries, especially Western nations, are sensitive about the quality of products they intend to import, in the case of items such as eggs, milk, fruits, or vegetables, among others. In the case of eggs, there aren’t any export restrictions imposed by India.
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