Indian firm can provide quality, inexpensive meat

Hind Agro Industries Ltd. (HAIL), which is based in New Delhi, can provide top quality water buffalo, sheep and goat meat products at very cheap prices, but Indonesian customers can not enjoy this because of the trade barrier imposed by the Ministry of Agriculture which bans the import of those products.

Industry sources described the barrier as a product of the "strong Australian lobby in Jakarta."

"We can provide our products 70 percent cheaper (than the meat from Australia)," said HAIL managing director Sirajuddin Qureshi in a recent interview.

"Our animals are disease free ... and we have not received complaints from customers," he claimed, adding that HAIL exports its meat products to around 40 countries, enjoying a US$100 million turnover per year from buffalo meat alone.

HAIL has set up a modern, integrated abattoir-cum-meat processing plant. It has the capacity to produce 300 tons of meat per day.

The company encouraged farmers to rear buffaloes and lambs to ensure supply, and it in turn extends assistance to them by providing door to door veterinary services by experts. HAIL has also set up veterinary hospitals. Slaughter is carried out following the Islamic Sharia guidelines of "Halal" method and also as per the requirements of the importing countries.

HAIL, which has in control of around 700,000 animals, has been exporting its products since the past 20 years mainly to ASEAN countries, Far East, Middle East and Africa. --JP