Examining Prospects for U.S. Pork in India

India is a small but growing market for imported pork, and its large population and rapidly expanding economy suggest there is excellent potential for long-term growth. While U.S. pork does not yet have access to India, U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) representative Monty Brown recently visited India to conduct market research and meet with prospective customers. These activities are funded by the Pork Checkoff, and Brown provides observations in the attached audio report. Brown notes that while India has historically lacked modern food retail outlets, this is beginning to change as high-end “food halls” emerge in India’s major shopping centers. He also discusses e-commerce as a potential venue for establishing U.S. pork sales in India. TRANSCRIPT:

Joe Schuele: India is a small but growing market for imported pork. And while U.S. pork does not yet have access to India, U.S. Meat Export Federation representative Monty Brown conducted a fact-finding visit funded by the Pork Checkoff. His observations are in this USMEF report.

Monty Brown: I went to Mumbai, Bangalore, Delhi and Agra. Bangalore is the fastest-growing city in India and the home of one of the of the big e-commerce companies, Big Basket. The charge was to see: Is there a market there for U.S. pork? The answer is: Yes, there is. It will be a bit of work, obviously, but yes there is a market there. There's potential, and if we can cement the potential we can generate things there. You know, they're buying pork now - from Europe predominantly - Spain, Belgium. Canada's got access and when we were there, Canadian product was just arriving. So they are getting imported pork and we have people interested. We had one company that wants to buy a pork carcass cut in three with the tenderloin removed, but included. They're happy to buy by the container. We think it'll suit a smaller exporter. That's one customer. We have Big Basket who I've spoken to. They are huge into e-commerce. They have quite a number of pork items on their website, distribution centers in about 19 or 20 cities, and 6.4 million users. So we have great potential to get in there.

Joe Schuele: India has historically lacked modern food retail outlets. Brown explains that this is changing, but in a unique way.

Monty Brown: I don't see that we're going to get the middle-ground supermarket, because land is so expensive. I don't see that if you have 100,000 square feet of store, you have a million square feet of parking around it because you just wouldn't be able to make it pay. But then you go to their food hall concept, which I would say is equivalent to a Whole Foods. The food hall is located in the new, modern retail mall. So it's there as, say, one of 40 or 50 stores.

Joe Schuele: For more information, please visit USMEF.org. For the U.S. Meat Export Federation, I’m Joe Schuele.