The Role of Multinational Enterprises in the growth and development of Food Sector in India

A Comparative Case Study of the Meat Sector in India and Netherlands _____________________________________________________________________________________

1.

INTRODUCTION

Indian economy is agriculture based and majority of people are involved in farming or allied activities. Till today, the agriculture continues to be the primary employment providing sector in rural India. According to the Economic Survey 2011-12, the share of agriculture and allied sectors to GDP declined to 13.9 per cent in 2011-12 from 14.5 per cent in 2010-11. During the current Five Year Plan the agricultural growth rate is estimated at 3.28 per cent against the target of 4 per cent. This continuous diminishing contribution of agriculture to GDP is an area of concern. As major effectors in Indian GDP growth, agriculture and allied activities need a booster. Until a growth rate of 4 percent is achieved in agriculture sector, the overall GDP growth of 8-9 % per annum cannot be achieved. Food processing provides the much awaited and much desired business model for the agricultural operations in the country. Food processing results in value addition, reduction of wastages, and creation of large scale employment & enhancement of farmers income. It aims to make the country a global leader in production, consumption and export of safe, nutritious and quality processed food leading to growth of rural income and national GDP at large. India ranks No. 1 in the world in production of milk, pulses, fresh fruits and buffalo meat. Despite the wide production base, low productivity, food inflation, food security and food quality are the vital issues which are of major concern for the policy framers in India. The major reason is harvest and post harvest losses of agricultural produce in the country. With adequate and modern processing facilities, much of the waste can be reduced to a large extent, thereby increasing the income of the farmers and ensuring the supply of quality food in sufficient quantity to the consumers. Though India has a strong raw material base, it has been unable to tap the potential for processing. Only about 2 % of the fruits and vegetables in India are processed, which is much lower when compared to countries like USA (65 %), Philippines (78%) and China (23) %. In terms of meat production, India stands at 5th rank among world's meat production with an estimated Meat Production of 6.3 million tonnes, and accounts for 2.2% of the total meat production of 220 million tonnes, which is much lower when compared to countries like China (25.6%), USA (16.7 %), Brazil (5.8%), France (3.8%), Germany (2.9%), Russia (2.8%) whereas it is higher than Netherlands which accounts for just 1.4%. (Source: Food & Agriculture Organisation FAO)

2.

STATUS OF MEAT SECTOR IN INDIA

Livestock is one of the important elements of Indian Economy. Especially for Exports, the livestock sector has seen massive growth in the last two decades and; the economic growth and domestic increase in income has further supported this International demand for Indian livestock. Total export earnings from livestock, poultry and related products was Rs. 4,734 crore in 2003-04. The value of output from meat group (as per estimates of Central Statistical Organisation (CSO) at current prices in 2010-11 was Rs. 72,444.22 crore. Since India has about 13% of worlds' cattle population and 56% of world's buffalo population, among livestock sector, cattle and buffalo play a major role in India's economy . This large population of animals
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are mostly maintained by rural families within small area of 1-2 acres. Apart from cattle and buffalo, India further has 104.5 million goats, 71.5 million sheep and 11 million pigs for meat and fibre production (GOI-2007). That is why it has been said that the socio- economic life of India, animal products plays an important role. It is a rich source of high quality of animal products such as milk, meat and eggs. Buffalo meat, Sheep/ Goat meat, Poultry products, Animal Casings, Milk and Milk products and Honey etc are the items that comes under the exports of Animal Products. India's export of Animal Products was Rs. 15,109.43 Crores in 2011-12, which mainly include the major products like: Buffalo Meat: Rs. 13725.23 Crores, Sheep/ Goat Meat: Rs. 255.22 Crores, Poultry Products: Rs. 457.81 Crores, Dairy Products: Rs. 289.36 Crores, Animal Casing: Rs. 27.05 Crores, Processed Meat: Rs. 30.01 Crores
(Source: APEDA)

In International market, the demand for Indian buffalo meat has been going up which leads to increase in the meat exports. With a contribution of over 86%, Buffalo meat dominated the exports. During the financial year 2011-12, the product has registered 60 % growth in export as compared to the same period of last year. Vietnam Social Republic, Malaysia, Egypt Arab Republic, Saudi Arabia and Jordan are the main markets for Indian buffalo meat and other animal products. During the financial year 2011-12, export of Poultry Products and Processed Meat from India has recorded a growth of 46% & 54% respectively, over the same period of last year. USA, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Vietnam Social Republic, Maldives and Angola etc. are amongst the major importing countries for these products. Meat Production is estimated at 6.3 million tonnes, 5th in rank of worlds meat production and accounts for 3% of the total worlds production of 220 million tonnes. Buffaloes in India contribute about 31% of the total meat production. The contribution by cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and poultry is 31%, 5%, 10%, 10% and 11% respectively. The share of bovine meat is about 62% as against the small ruminants of 15%. The share of Red Meat is 77%. In spite of big potential because of large livestock population, on account of negative perceptions the meat industry has not grown sufficiently. The meat production which jibes well with dairying is still lagging behind and is at 5th position (6.3 million tonnes) despite India has acquired number one status in the world, contributing 13% (117 million tonnes) of the world's total milk production. The trends in livestock population, slaughter rate. 2.1 Contribution of livestock and meat to GDP
Table 2.1 Value of output of different meats to meat group (2007-08)

Sl. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Items Beef Mutton Pork Poultry meat Meat Products By-Products (Hides, skins & others) Total

Value (Rs. in crores) 6,276 21,787 3,228 24,759 2412 5611 64,073

% share 9.80 34.00 5.04 38.64 3.73 8.76 100.0

Source: Central Statistical Organisation, Dept. of Statistics, GOI (2009).

The above table clearly shows that poultry meat with 38.64% and mutton with 34% share, within the meat group, are the major items. These two items chip in nearly 73% of the total value of output from meat group. 2.2 Processing of Meat When it comes to meat processing, there is very low processing. Among the total meat produced in the country, hardly 1% is used for processing. There are 37 Integrated Modern Meat Processing Export oriented units and nearly 800 smaller and not so modern meat processing plants which cater to the domestic market. These 800 plants invariably suffer from lack of access to latest technology, latest mechanised plants and trained man-power. They hardly adhere to Good Health Practices (GHP), Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP). There efficiency, productivity and quality levels need substantial improvement. There are no Multi-National Enterprises now with Meat sector in India. For the elite market, Pork and Poultry meat are used for production of ham, sausages, patties etc. Some of the meat processors like Venky, Government Bacon Factories etc, produce these products. For production of traditional Kebabs (Seekh and Shami Kebab) meat from small ruminants, namely, sheep and goat is also used. For preparation of curries and kebabs in the household, basically Buffalo meat is used. To make the dishes delicious, it is also mixed with vegetables like potatoes, cabbages, turnips, sugar beat, to name a few, besides the irresistible Biryani, which is a mix of meat and rice. Buffalo steaks are also a delicious product. Both Seekh and Shami Kebabs are delicacies prepared from buffalo meat only, which is liked by all classes of people in India. The buffalo meat is used for industrial purposes in the production of sausages, patties, nuggets, corn beef, ham etc. as it has a great water holding and binding properties. In the countries like Philippines, Thailand, Iran etc., a large part of the meat is used for the production of ham and corn beef. 2.3 Production and export of meat As per the report of DAHD (2010), total meat production has been estimated at about 4.02 million tonnes(MT) which includes meat from cattle 0.223 mt, buffaloes 0.647 mt, sheep 0.229 mt, goats 0.531 mt, pigs 0.236 mt and poultry 2.026 mt. Because of non-addition of slaughter in unrecognized slaughterhouses the meat production from cattle and buffaloes has been estimated lower. On the contrary, according to the FAO data (2009), India annually produces 0.886 lakh tonnes of cattle meat, 1.427 lakh tonnes of buffalo meat, 0.479 lakh tonnes of goat meat, 0.240 lakh tonnes of sheep meat, 0.481 lakh tonnes of pig meat and 0.727 lakh tonnes of poultry meat. Though India claims nearly 16% of world livestock population, but it produces only 2.2% of the total global meat production. There is need to have a study for estimating the meat production from different species of animals considering slaughter of animals both in recognized and unrecognized slaughterhouses.
Table 2.2 Export of meat and meat products (2010-11)

Sl. No. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6.

Product Category Buffalo meat Sheep/goat meat Poultry products Processed meat Swine meat Animal Casings Total

Quantity (MT) 709437.49 11908.38 619150.80 1366.16 1115.35 1809.42 1381655

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Value (Rs. million) 84127 2532 3013 211 105 351 90343

Share 93.12 2.80 3.33 0.23 0.12 0.39 100.0

Source: APEDA, 2010.

The total export value of meat and meat products during 2010-11 accounts for Rs.90343 million. Out of this total value, buffalo meat accounts for 93%, followed by poultry products 3.33% and sheep and goat meat 2.8%. This clearly shows that buffalo meat is the most significant item in the total export of meat and meat products from our country. In countries like Vietnam, Malaysia, UAE, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Philippines there is a strong demand for buffalo meat. 2.4 Status of Meat Sector in Netherlands Based on the first hand information collected from The Product Boards for Livestock, Meat and Eggs (PVE), the Netherlands the status of meat sector in Netherlands is as follows: The Production Value of Meat in Netherlands accounts for 5.6 billion Euro which includes the share of Pork (44.0%), Veal (15.1%), Poultry (14.2%) and Other (26.7%). Beef Sector: Some of the key facts of Dutch Beef Sector are: o They have 8 slaughterhouse, around 34,198 farms and 2,700,000 animals. o Slaughtering a year 508,000 from which they exports worldwide around 2,30,000 tonnes. Quality and Safety guarantees audits by: Food and Consumer products Safety Authority (Voedsel en Waren Autoriteit producten or VWA), General Inspection Services (Algemene Inspectie Dienst or AID) and SKV (Stichting kwaliteitsgarantie Vleeskalversector or The Foundation for Quality Guarantee of the Veal
Sector)

Some of the key facts of Dutch Pork Sector (2010) are : o They have 12,187,000 number of Pigs, 6,508 number of farms, 9 Slaughter Companies and total 15 pig slaughterhouses. o Slaughtering a year 13,900,000. 1,283,000 tonnes is the total production of Pork meat among which they export 8,51,000 tonnes of pork meat. Netherlands major Export Markets for meat are Germany (21.2%), Italy (19.2%), Greece (11.7%), UK (11.5%) and Russia (1.7%) Poultry Sector: Total Production of poultry meat is 768,000 tonnes among which production of Boilers is 7,22,000 tonnes and others is 46,000 tonnes. Total Export of Poultry Meat is 785,000 tonnes. Major market for poultry meat is Germany (23.4%), UK (18.2%), Other EU (37.3%), Hong Kong (1.5%), Russia (3.4%), Ukraine (3.2%) and other (11.1%).

3.

ISSUES WITH THE INDIAN MEAT SECTOR

3.1 Challenges and Opportunities for Indian Meat Industry State of Art-Abattoir-cum-Meat Processing Plants Packaging of Technologies to raise male Buffalo Calves for Meat Production Buffalo Rearing under Contractual Farming as Backward Integration To the Modern Abattoirs for Meat Production Establishing Disease-Free Zones for Rearing Animals Quality assurance (consumer awareness)/meat inspection Traceability Meat adulteration Meat animal welfare Cold chain Conservation and sustainable supply of meat animals Prices control Backward and forward linkage
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 Farm to fork concept Lack of Integrated Practices for Rearing, Slaughtering, of Male calf and Processing of its Meat. In the past, India had achieved the Green Revolution, White Revolution and Blue Revolution which led to self-sufficiency in Food grain sector, India occupying the no. 1 position in Milk production in the world and increase in fish production respectively. Indian farmers have been able to achieve these mammoth targets only with correct guidance and full support by multiple authorities like scientists, corporate firms, policy makers, local authorities, institutions etc. For instance, Corporate firms like PepsiCo India have associated themselves with 21,000 farmers in 2009 and target to increase it to 50,000 by 2012
(source: PepsiCo India website; http://pepsicoindia.co.in/purpose/environmental-sustainability/partnership-withfarmers.html). Similarly, NIFTEM (National Institute of Food Technology Entrepreneurship and Management) has

initiated a village adoption programme wherein students have to identify a village and establish a work plan to organize resources by providing vital linkages, micro credits, Govt. Policies. And also, provide access and

training programme to farmers through KVK (Krishi Vigyan Kendras) which disseminates information on Agricultural technologies which are low cost and also promote good agricultural practices. (source: NIFTEM website: http://www.niftem.ac.in/NIFTEM/downloads/1.pdf). It is only through such initiatives that India can achieve another revolution in the meat sector. So while, there are a lot of challenges and weaknesses in the Meat sector but the sector has a lot of untapped potential which can be achieved by providing adequate guidance to the farmers. Similarly, the entry of Meat Multinationals from abroad will also help the nascent Indian Meat Industry to improve their productivity, efficiency and quality as would be discussed later in this paper. 3.2 Current status of traditional large animal abattoirs In a survey conducted by NABCONs, it has been found that:For domestic meat consumption large animals are slaughtered in the public slaughterhouses following traditional method of slaughter. All these slaughterhouses are characterized by poor facilities and unhygienic slaughter practices. In all the eight slaughterhouses studied terminal livestock market was not present. No separate lairage was there, but in 6 slaughterhouses animal holding area was present with minimum facilities for feeding and watering. Except one slaughter house, Ante-mortem facilities and isolation pens were absent in all. Halal method of slaughtering is followed in all the slaughterhouses. Only in two slaughterhouses, carcass hanging facility was available. Only in three slaughterhouses i.e. Thirussur, Hyderabad and Kolkata, the water taps and hose pipe systems were found acceptable. Slaughter halls were cleaned once a day after completion of the operations for the day. Personal hygiene was pitiable. In general, ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections were not found to be satisfactory in all the slaughterhouses and no records were maintained. In neither of the slaughterhouses the meat inspection lab was available. In 6 out of 8 slaughterhouses stray dogs had free access. Only in three slaughterhouses i.e. Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata the Effluent Treatment Plant was available and wastewater is left out in the open areas in other slaughterhouses. No rendering plant was available in any of the slaughterhouses. No equipment was to be seen other than the slaughter building and surrounding area. Financial parameters were not available in all the slaughterhouses excepting monthly expenditure which varied from Rs.65, 000 to 10 lakhs. Other than one slaughterhouse i.e. Thirussur, remaining had veterinarians and a skeleton staff. 3.3 Current status of modern large animal abattoirs As said earlier, there are about 32 integrated modern abattoir-cum-meat processing complexes approved by APEDA for meat export. Buffalo meat exports which has started with very small quantity of 2000 tonnes in the year 1973-74 has increased to 63361 tonnes by 1990; 288028 tonnes by 2000 and
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13.81 lakh tonnes by 2011. Among total meat exports, Buffalo meat exports accounted for more than 93%. In the NABCONs study, current status of modern large animal abattoirs is brought out by collecting relevant information from three corporate abattoirs (Hind Agro, Ind Agro and Al-kabeer) and two public abattoirs (Deonar and Ghazipur). All the five plants had the necessary facilities stipulated under the following eight points i.e. Preslaughter care, slaughter and dressing operations, forward integration, quality adherence practices, quality control measures, byproducts utilization, waste disposal and effluent treatment. However forward integration facility was absent in public abattoirs. In the surveyed large animal modern abattoirs, the quality adherence practices followed were covered under following three major quality parameters viz. 1. Sanitation facilities, 2. Personal hygiene and 3. Sanitation practices. In terms of sanitation facilities, all three corporate plants and MCD Ghazipur slaughterhouse had all the facilities. However, Deonar slaughterhouse lacked in some points. In all the slaughterhouses Personal hygiene was highly satisfactory with the sole exception of Deonar abattoir. In sanitation practices, cleaning frequency of slaughter floor, cleaning and sanitation procedures using detergents & sanitizers and clear demarcation of clean &unclean operations were observed. All the above points were found satisfactory in all the five modern slaughterhouses studied. To assess quality control measures the following points were considered: Ante-mortem examination, Post-mortem examination, Meat inspection lab, Carcass trimming, Carcass washing, Carcass decontamination, Disposal of condemned meat/offal and Stray dogs menace in slaughter hall plant premises. In all the five modern slaughterhouses studied, most of the above points were found to be highly satisfactory. However, for residues analysis, laboratory facilities were not available anywhere. In all corporate abattoirs, Meat inspection and microbiology lab facilities were available. In corporate abattoirs stray dogs menace inside the campus was not reported. However, inside the campus of Deonar abattoir stray dogs were seen. In case of modern abattoirs, an additional quality control parameter of quality protocols and accreditations comprising six points on GHP, GMP, HACCP, FSMS Manual, IS0 22000 and SPS was also covered. Three corporate plants and Ghazipur plant of MCD have all the mentioned accreditations, whereas Deonar practiced only GHP and GMP. Under waste disposal, the following four points were noted: 1. Blood collection and processing, 2. Disposal of solid wastes, 3. Availability of Effluent Treatment Plant (ETP) and 4. Presence of obnoxious smell in the slaughter premises. On waste disposal, all corporate abattoirs and Ghazipur slaughterhouse were meeting the stringent stipulations. However, in case of Deonar, blood is allowed to mix with other effluents and treated in the effluent treatment plant. Obnoxious smell was absent in the plant premises in all the places. Well managed ETPs were observed in all the modern plants had. Under infrastructure and equipment regarding plant area and equipment used were enquired. All the equipment listed in the structured schedule was being used in the three corporate plants and MCD
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slaughterhouse. Most of the plants are fully integrated where healthy animals are slaughtered and carcasses are deboned. The deboned meat is frozen and exported. These plants have rendering plants and effluent treatment plants attached to them. Some of the processing plants in Sahibabad, UP, Kirti Nagar Industrial Area in Delhi and Mumbai in Maharashtra, do not have their own slaughter houses, but receive the carcasses of the slaughtered animals from the Government approved Municipal slaughter houses. These plants do small business. 4. METHODOLOGY - CASE STUDIES In the present study, a comparative case study of Indian meat industry and meat industry in Netherlands has been done. The case study approach has been adopted where in the study of some meat sector units in India by NABCONS has been taken to show the present conditions of Indian Meat Processing sector. On the other hand, first hand study of some of modern meat processing Industry of Netherlands, namely, Van Drie Group, Vion Group, Meat Processing System (MPS) Group, Vriescentrale Asten Group, Sonac Son Group, Storteboom Group and Myen Group has been undertaken to bring out the comparison on one hand and to indicate the areas of learning for the Indian Industry on the other. Some Facts about the Netherlands In Netherlands, industrial activity is predominantly in food processing, chemicals, petroleum refining and electrical machinery. A highly mechanized agriculture sector employs only 2% of the labour force but provides large surpluses for the food processing industry and for exports. The country has been one of the leading European nations for attracting FDI and is one of the four largest investors in the US. When it comes to the value of agricultural exports, the Dutch rank third worldwide.
Fig: 4.1 A brief outline of the industries managed by corporate in Netherlands that has been covered in the study has been mentioned as under:

S.No.

Company

1.

Van Drie Group

2.

Vion Group

3.

Meat Processing System Group (MPS)

4. 5.

Vriescentrale Asten Group Sonac Son Rendering Group Plant

Core Competenc e Veal Slaughter House and Veal Contract Farm Pork Slaughter house Slaughter house equipment manufactur er Cold Store

Brief Profile

Company deals with slaughtering process of calves right from rearing of the claves to their transportation to slaughter house, slaughtering, deboning and processing

Pork slaughtering, deboning, cutting into primal cuts and processing Full line supplier, Turnkey capabilities, Control software, global coverage and experience

Established in year 1989 and is the largest European cold store Sole rendering plant in the Netherlands, established way back in 1941. It receives all the fallen and some slaughtered carcasses within one working day after their mortality. Dehiding of the carcasses is done followed by being subjected to a process of high temperature high
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6.

Storteboom Group Myen Group

Poultry Slaughter house Poultry slaughter house equipment manufactur er

time pasteurization, sterilization, deboning and crushing. This results in reduction of the carcasses to a minimum and hence are properly disposed off. Slaughtering process of chicken ranging from deboning and cutting to processing Construction of poultry slaughter house equipment and assemblage of tailormade slaughterhouse equipment such as live bird handling, slaughtering, evisceration, chilling, cutting up, deboning, Packaging and dispatch, Planning and IT, weighing and measurement, By product handling and installation of poultry slaughterhouse plant.

Indian Industries S.No. Company 1. Hind- agro

Brief Profile Hind Agro Industries Limited is the first company in India to have Asia's one of the most modern abattoir-cum-meat processing plant at Aligarh in the State of Uttar Pradesh in North India. It is a joint venture of Hind Industries Limited, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh and assisted by Govt. of India. 2. Allanasons World's Largest Producer and India's largest exporter of Exporter of Frozen Halal processed food products and Boneless Buffalo Meat. agro commodities. The Company has been designated as the Five Star Trading House by the Government of India. There are about 37 integrated meat processing plants which are approved for export of meat besides 67 processing plants. These 32 integrated modern meat processing plants approved for export of meat. These plants are eco-friendly and are world class following the sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) guidelines given in Codex Alimentarius for Quality safe meat. These plants have HACCP and ISO: 9000 certification. Many integrated plants have SGS Certification also and follow Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) and Good Hygienic Practices (GHP). The integrated plants have facilities for holding of animals, lairage, race, knocking box, stunning facilities, abattoir with slaughter line for bleeding, de-hiding, splitting, washing and weighing facilities. The plants have also facilities for chilling, deboning, plant freezing, blast freezing, modern packing and cold storage. The processing plants have bio-security built in the plant where there are two zones, namely, black and white zones. The plants have modern facilities for by-products processing, proper and efficient solid waste disposal, effluent treatment, bio-methanation and rendering plants. There efficiency, productivity and quality are matching to the Multinational Enterprises of Netherlands.

Core Competence Only company in India to have the unique facilities of slaughtering the animals which have been bred and reared on strict guidelines set by the O.I.E. Paris.

5. STUDY OF INDIAN MEAT UNITS: 5.1. Processing The whole process of animal slaughtering and meat processing is done in the following manner in these export oriented plants:a. The animals are brought from the disease free zone which is about 100 km area around each export oriented plant where all the disease control programmes are in place and monitored by the State Government Veterinary Department. b. The animals are brought to the slaughter house from the local livestock markets with individual animal's identification tags to ensure traceability as to the origin of the animal. The transport of livestock is as per the guidelines given by the SPCA Act of 1960 and BIS Standards of 2007 which takes care of animal welfare while being transported. The Veterinary Doctor issues the Animal Health Certificate during the transit of the animal from livestock market to slaughter house. c. In the plants, the trucks with live animals are passed through the foot bath with 1% farmaldehyde to disinfect the truck tyres from the black zone. The animals have a forward movement in the plant where live animals are passed through to black zone and finished product is packed and dispatched from the white zone. The animals are unloaded at the unloading area and kept for 24 hours in the resting pens where drinking water is made available. Here, ante mortem examination of live animals is conducted by the veterinarians. As per the norm, one veterinarian is assigned to conduct 96 ante mortem examinations per day in a shift of 8 hours/day. The animals passed by the Veterinarian in ante-mortem inspection are passed through lairage and race where they are washed with water before sending for slaughter. d. The animals for slaughter are held in the Knocking Box where they cannot see the animals being slaughtered. First they are stunned either by electric/pneumatic stunner as per the requirements of the importing countries. Some countries do not allow slow stunning. All the animals are slaughtered by HALAL method in the presence of Holyman assigned by the All India Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind as per Islamic Shariyat, for certification. e. After slaughter, the animals are allowed to completely bleed in the slaughter line, where after legs are cut, de-hiding is done and the carcass is split into two halves. Here, the Veterinarans conduct the post mortem examination in the abattoir. After it is found fit for human consumption, the carcass is washed, stamped and transferred to chiller. The chiller has a temperature range of 2-4C where carcasses are kept for 24 hours. When the deboned temperature is achieved at 7C and pH has gone down below 6C, the carcass is brought to deboning hall having room temperature between 12C-15C for deboning and preparation of prime cuts. f. Various prime cuts and prepared as per the buyer's requirements. The packed cartons are passed through the metal detector to check for external contaminants. Thereafter, the cartons are frozen at -40C for 10-12 hours to bring the deep bone temperature to -18C to -20C. The cartons can also be frozen in Blast freezers having a temperature of -40C. The cartons are labelled about the date of production, shelf life, contents of the product, country, country of export etc. as per the requirements of the country. After Freezing, cartons are brought to the cold storage. Here, they remain till they are cleared by the in-house laboratory about the safety of the batch after microbial analysis.

5.2.

Quality Assurance

The quality and safety are assured by monitoring the Critical Control Points (CCPs) of HACCP and ISO: 9000. The in-house laboratory conducts at random the microbial examinations of samples of meat, water, air, personal swabs from the worker's hand, etc, so as to keep tabs on the hygienic environment and personal hygiene. After the clearance from the in-house laboratory, the cartons with frozen meat are loaded in the refrigerator containers having -18C to -20C, sealed and transported to the Mumbai / Chennai / Kolkata seaports for onward transmission to the importing countries. In the production process cold chain is maintained since the carcasses are chilled to the end users namely, processing plants / individual consumers. 5.3. Study of Indian Export Oriented Units Hind Agro Industries Limited is the first company in India to have Asia's one of the most modern abattoir-cum-meat processing plant at Aligarh in the State of Uttar Pradesh in North India. It is a joint venture of Hind Industries Limited, Govt. of Uttar Pradesh and assisted by Govt. of India. This plant at Aligarh is approved by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA), Ministry of Commerce, Govt. of India for export of meat and meat products. Hind Agro Industries Limited is the only company in the country to have the unique facilities of slaughtering the animals which have been bred and reared on strict guidelines set by the O.I.E. Paris. Farmers are encouraged to rear male buffalo calves specially for supplying to the company under the contractual farming.

Chilling of carcasses after post mortem for 24 hours to bring ph below 6 at Hind Agros integrated meat processing plant.

Deboning of meat at Hind Agros integrated meat Processing plant

Chilling of carcasses after post mortem for 24 hours to bring ph below 6 at Hind Agros Integrated meat Processing plant

Freezing of meat packed in cartons in plate freezer at18 degree celsius at Hind Agros Integrated meat Processing plant

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Allanasons Allanasons is India's largest exporter of processed food products and agro commodities. The Company has been designated as the Five Star Trading House by the Government of India. Allana Group has achieved enviable growth in its exports, clocking 44% over the last two years. They are the world's largest producer and exporter of frozen halal boneless buffalo meat. For its new range of value added, branded consumer frozen food products to be launched shortly, the Group is constructing additional Food Processing Plants with large investments in machinery and manpower. The Group has made substantial investments in creating worldclass integrated food processing complexes. Facilities, Allanasons prominent retail Brand SAFFA, under which have been certified for quality and product safety which they offer Halal Non-Veg products like systems under ISO 9001:2000 and HACCP, ISO 14001 Frozen Mutton, Buffalo Meat, Institutional Cuts, (Environment Management System) and OHAS 18000 Fresh Chilled, Chilled Vacuum Pack and Ready to Cook Products. too. 5.4. Other Meat Processing Units in India:

In addition to the export oriented Integrated Meat Processing Plants, nearly 800 licensed Meat Processing plants are there in India which basically cater to Domestic market. Most of them suffer from the following deficiencies:1. Lack of Hygienic source of Meat supply. 2. Lack of Modern Hygienic slaughter facility. 3. Lack of Integrated Slaughter, Storage, Processing and Packing facility. 4. Lack of access to modern technology to slaughter, process, store, pack and transport the meat/meat product in a hygienic manner. 5. Lack of access to trained manpower 6. Non-Adherence to Good Hygienic Practices (GHP) 7. Non-Adherence to Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) Most of these Meat Processing Units are dependent on 4000 registered slaughter houses (Registered with the Local Municipal Board) or more than 25,000 unregistered slaughterhouses. Butchers who slaughter the animals and trade in Carcass or meat buy the animals normally from unregulated, unhygienic and unlicensed local animal market. Then they slaughter these animals in very unhygienic and cruel conditions and supply the whole carcass or meat to the Meat Processing units (nearly 800 in number as mentioned above). These meat processing plants operate at a much lower level of efficiency and productivity as compared to the Export units and quality of their products always has a question mark. In all these parameters these units are much below that of the Multinational enterprises of Netherland. 5.5. Conditions of Slaughter Houses Based on the study of slaughter facilities and slaughter procedures, NABCONs has classified Abattoirs under three groups as show below. Traditional technology abattoirs: These are abattoirs that have primitive facilities and follow time-old floor slaughter and dressing procedures. Hygiene is neglected and it involves intense human labour. Intermediate technology abattoirs:

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These are traditional abattoirs in which some investments have been made to improve the infrastructure facilities with twin objectives of enforcing hygiene and reducing manual labour. It also includes newly built low cost non-mechanized abattoirs with overhead railing system or abattoirs with innovative off-the-floor slaughter facilities. The overall effect is that a fairly satisfactory level of improvement is achieved in terms of reduction in manual labour, reduction in the number of floor slaughter steps, perceivable hygiene and erasing of stigma such as ghastly slaughter scenes, dirty environment and off odours, etc. that are usually noticed in traditional abattoirs. Modern technology abattoirs: These are abattoirs that have modern facilities and follow online procedures for Slaughter and dressing with required facilities for receipt of animals at one end of overhead rails and delivery of carcasses at the other end and for removal of offals at various points. Hygiene is meticulously followed at each step. The essential facilities include: 1. Lairage 2. Stunning 3. Overhead rail system with full range of advanced abattoir equipment 4. Rendering plant 5. Effluent treatment plant The slaughter is either fully or partially mechanized with less of manual labour. If the abattoir meets all the above requirements (even without stunning on religious compulsion), it will be considered under the category of modern technology abattoir. Based on the Survey done by NABCONs in India and first hand information collected from VanDrie Group, Netherlands, a comparative table is placed at Annexure-1 wherein the detailed comparison of Indian modern slaughterhouses with Netherlands modern Slaughterhouses on various parameters has been presented.

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6. NETHERLANDS INTEGRATED UNITS STUDIED The VanDrie Group, Netherlands The VanDrie Group is the largest privately owned agro company in the Netherlands. The group comprises more than twenty businesses, making it the largest integrated veal producer in the world. They produce 25% of all European veal. Company has fixed-contract arrangements with 1,200 veal farmers, it owns feed companies that produce calf milk powder in the Netherlands, Germany and Italy they have slaughterhouses in the Netherlands, Belgium and France and a company which processes the skins. Traditional methods are also applied to the slaughter and processing of the meat. Of their approximately 1,700 employees, two-third work in the Netherlands. Our Dutch company has thereby grown to become the global market leader in the veal industry.
VanDrie Group's Contract Farm (photo credit: Dr. Rashmi Kumar)

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The calves the VanDrie Group purchase for veal production are not purpose-bred they are calves that cannot be used in the dairy industry, After all, the production of milk, butter and cheese is inextricably linked to the birth of claves. In order for a cow to give milk, she must bear a calf once a year. In the past, the animals were often killed immediately after birth. Nowadays, these animals are brought from the dairy farm to the veal farm two weeks after birth. They subsequently remain there for six to twelve months before going to the slaughterhouse. In this way, they add value to animals that the dairy farm cannot use-in respectful way.
VanDrie Integrated Veal Slaughterhouse (photo credit: Dr. Rashmi Kumar)

Dr. Rashmi Kumar at VanDrie Integrated Veal Slaughterhouse

Turnover of VanDrie Group The VanDrie Group has an annual turnover of approximately 1.5 billion Euro. Approximately 95% of this turnover comes from Europe. Quality and accountability throughout the Dr. Rashmi Kumar at VanDrie Integrated Processing Plant chain Quality is not achieved without efforts; it requires a well-considered approach founded upon a solid cooperation between all the links in the chain. The VanDrie Group has an Internal benchmarking system enabling the various business units to learn from each other and make improvements. The VanDrie Group has its own Quality system: Safety Guard. Additionally, they are working with other chain partners to build solid, verifiable and transparent chain quality systems for all business activities, such as the Veal Calf Quality Guarantee foundation (SKV) and integrated Chain Management (IKB). These chain systems are the backbone of the company and from the basis for sustainable and socially responsible veal production. Safety Guard: Food safety, food quality and animal welfare In order to optimise the Safety guard system, the VanDrie Group has integrated the ISO 22000 standard within chain quality system-was implemented at all of the VanDrie Groups locations to further safeguard food quality and safety.
Packing contains the whole lifecycle detail of the product (Photo credit: Dr. Rashmi Kumar)

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Re-use and disposal of residual products At all production sites, the different waste streams are collected separately and transported accordingly. The objective is to re-use as many different types of waste products as possible. Markets are sought for as many waste stream as possible, so that those substances that are no longer useful to the VanDrie group can be used by others like in the pharmaceutical industry, manure from slaughterhouses is used to generate electricity through fermentation etc. With recycling, less than 10% of the residual products are disposed of as waste.

By-products treatment area at VanDrie Group's Integrated Meat Processing Plant (Photo credit: Dr. Rashmi Kumar)

VanDrie Group's specially designed truck for carrying the live animals (Photo credit: Dr. Rashmi Kumar)

VION Group VION Food Netherlands is a specialist producer of high-quality pork and beef products as well as derived convenience products (Fresh Meat and Convenience) brought to consumers via the retail, industrial and foodservice sectors. Due to the high degree of self-sufficiency of the Netherlands, VION Food Netherlands is strongly export-oriented. For example, the UK (bacon) and Italy (ham) are important export countries. - Turn-over: 9.6 billion - Employees: 35,500 - Head Office: Eindhoven, The Netherlands - Core activities: VION Food & VION Ingredients - Mission: VION wants to anticipate on and fulfill customer and consumer needs with high quality and innovative Food and Ingredients. - Objective: VION wants to become a leader in (selected) Food and Ingredients Market segments

VION Pork Slaughter House (photo credit Dr. Rashmi Kumar)

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2 Sisters Food Group, Netherlands 2 Sisters Food Group having its headquartered in Birmingham, was established in 1993 by their Chief Executive, Ranjit Singh, and remains a privately owned company. During this period the company has evolved from a small scale frozen retail cutting operation to a world class food company, serving the retail, foodservice and manufacturing sectors. Today the group are a diversified food manufacturer with strong market positions in Poultry, Chilled, Bakery and Frozen categories. They focus on delivering the highest quality product to their customers at the lowest cost. Their UK customers include Aldi, Asda, British Airways, Costa, Harrods, KFC, Lidl, Marks & Spencer, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Tesco and Waitrose. Mission Statement: Produce more for less!!! Core figures 2 Sisters Food Group: 13 production locations in the UK 7 production locations in the Netherlands 1 production location in Poland About 7000 employees Turnover about 1.25 billion euros Slaughtering of 6 million chickens per week

The 2 Sisters Group's integrated poultry processing plant (photo credit: Dr. Rashmi Kumar)

The Meat Processing System (MPS) MPS Red Meat Slaughtering is the market leader for the supply of process machinery, transport systems and controls for the slaughter line processing of pigs, cattle, claves and sheep. Based on extensive experience, MPS Red Meat Slaughtering designs, manufactures and installs bespoke and effective solutions for customers worldwide, from an individual machine, through detailed solutions, to a complex, integrated project. MPS Red Meat Slaughtering are experts at providing traditional products quality with modern slaughter line processes. Development is also very important and it is not surprising that MPS Red Meat Slaughtering has the reputation for being the industrys pre -eminent innovator. MPS is a full-line supplier, which means that they design, manufacture and install process equipment, transport systems and control systems that meet the customers requirements. MPS Red Meat Slaughtering produces

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slaughter lines for pigs, calves, cattle and sheep including the various component parts that are highly efficient, hygienically designed, economical to maintain and easy to operate. Pigs: full-line solutions for 40 1,600 pigs an hour Cattle: full-line solutions for 10 - 150 cattle an hour Sheep: full-line solutions for 100 1,000 sheep an hour Automated slaughtering solutions: kill floor automated solutions for 200-1300 pigs an hour

Cutting and Deboning Chilling & Cooling Ritual Stunning Systems 7. ANALYSIS The information regarding the Indian Meat Sector has been collected through secondary sources and the data for the Netherland Meat sector has been collected through first hand primary study; the data were analysed and following results emerged : (i) The Indian meat sector is highly unorganised and fragmented wherein millions of famers spread all over the country rear one or two animals like buffalos, goats, sheep's, pigs etc. The rearing is not on very scientific line as the farmers are mostly illiterate the knowledge of Good Hygienic Practices (GHP) is totally absent. There are very few large farms which rears 100-500 buffalos but that it is done only for milk production purpose and not for meat production purposes. On the other hand the meat sector in Netherlands is fully organised and rearing of animal is done in large farms (500-1000 animals) where the animals are raised for meat purpose on scientific line following GHP and monitoring their growth in well defined manner. detailed record of each animal is kept right from its birth (including the details of its parents), the type of feed being giving to them, healthcare being provided, their weight gain is meticulously recorded. this results in much hygienic source of meat with clear traceability. In India in some private sector export oriented units they maintain their own animal rearing farms in the same manner as that of in Netherlands. But these are few in numbers where the total number of animals being reared by all the animals taken together doesn't go beyond 5000 to 6000 at any given point of time. These are only used for export while the source for meat for domestic market are those million of animals being reared by millions of farmers all over the country in fragmented manner and in an unscientific manner. there is no question of traceability possible in these cases. (ii) In India there is no organised animal market from where animals could be bought and slaughtered for meat purposes. In most of the cases the farmers bring one or two animals to a traditional open

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air market near their village and sell the animals to the butcher. These markets do not have the clean resting places for the animals, clean drinking water, clean feeding stalls and any facility for animal health check-up before purchase. There is hardly any system of contract rearing in India. While in Netherlands, it is always a contract farming of animal where the rearing farms is under a contract with the slaughter house or integrated meat processing unit. This naturally improves the quality of meat which is been made available to the consumers.
(iii)

In Netherlands, the transportation of animals takes place in a well constructed and comfortable transport truck while in India the animals are transported in a very crowded, cruel and unhygienic manner which bring lot of injuries to the animals. In India, there is no integrated meat processing plant for the domestic consumers. there are only few integrated processing plants which cater to the demand of export as discussed earlier in the paper. For the domestic market in India animals are slaughtered either in the slaughterhouses licensed by Municipal bodies, which are mostly traditional in nature with no modern facilities, where the hygienic conditions are dismal. Facilities for collection and proper disposal for blood and offal's are absent as has been found in the NABCONS study. The butchers who work in these traditional slaughterhouses are not trained in the scientific manner and they do the slaughtering in very cruel and unhygienic manner as shown in some of the photographs. In addition, Slaughtering is done anywhere and everywhere in a very unhygienic manner. On the other hand, we have one of the most modern integrated meat processing plants in Netherlands which have a slaughterhouse, meat processing unit and packaging unit and a transportation unit as well so as to produce hygienic meat for the consumer.

(iv)

(v)

Because of the unhygienic slaughtering and handling of meat in India, the quality of meat has a big question mark. It is always said in a lighter vein "because we cook the meat at a very high temperature and then eat it, we survive otherwise if we start eating cold meat like it is done in the west, all of us would die". In the export oriented units based in India the production of meat is done in a good hygienic condition as it is done in Netherlands and they always adopt GHP, GMP and HACCP. almost all of these units have their own testing laboratory to check the quality of meat by them before it is packed and shipped. In Netherlands all the meat production units are integrated as mentioned earlier, are most modern and mechanised to a great extend with least human interference, their quality of meat is of very high standard. they strictly implement GHP, GMP, HACCP and have rigorous quality control measures.

(vi)

In India the meat is carried in open carts or smaller vehicle after slaughter and hence is always prone to bacterial infection. While in Netherlands the meat is transported in a air-conditioned specifically designed truck so that the quality of meat could be maintained.

(vii) In India the meat processing units (other than the export oriented units) are still not up to the mark in maintaining the level o f workers personal hygiene, implementing of GHP, GMP as well as HACCP. There are very few large units which have laboratories for quality control but most of them are in poultry sector like M/s Alchemist, M/s Venkeys, M/s Suguna etc.

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(viii) In India, the workers working in slaughterhouse or meat processing units are never trained and never skilled compromising the quality of meat and meat products. While it has been found in primary survey that the meat units in Netherlands have very rigorous training and skill/knowledge development programme for their workers, manager etc. this automatically improves the productivity , efficiency of unit and quality of their products. (ix) The retail outlets for meat in India are mostly traditional in nature with not much facilitate for hygienic storage and preservation of meat and meat products. This also creates an issue of quality. Some meat and poultry processing units have started establishing their chain of modern retail outlets which have much better arrangements for selling quality products.

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8. CONCLUSION On the basis of the comparative study and the analysis presented earlier in the paper, the following conclusion have been reached: (A) Since the Export oriented Integrated Meat Units of India compare equally well with the Multinationals Meat Enterprises of Netherland, there will not be any benefit to them by the entry of MNEs in India. Rather they may have a very strong confrontation which would force them to improve the productivity, efficiency and quality of meat. The other smaller Meat Processing units of our country will have an opportunity to learn from the coming MNEs in India and this will help them in improving their efficiency, productivity and quality levels. The strong competition being put up by the entering MNEs will also force these Meat Units to improve their products quality and pricewise by discarding their inefficiencies. Off-course the units which do not improve, may be forced out of business. The consumers will be immensely benefitted in getting much better product quality-wise and price-wise. Our Meat industry will get motivated to adopt GHP, GMP and HACCP practices which will benefit them to a great extent in the long run. The modern abattoirs of MNEs will create conducive condition for modernising of our traditional abattoirs. The models adopted by MNEs for backward-forward linkages, transportation of animals and finished meat products will lead to modernising our systems also. Crores and crores of male buffalo calf which are left to die in our country can become productive meat supply source on the model of Veal Integrated Meat units and contract farming of Veal calf. This will result in Billions Rupees with lean meat of male buffalo calf which have huge demand abroad. The meticulous training /skill up-gradation regime being followed by the MNEs will show the way to our meat industry to do the same for the butchers/other workers and managers of the meat industry. This will enhance their efficiency, productivity and quality substantially.

(B)

(C)

(D)

(E)

(F)

(G)

(H)

(I)

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