From Food Scarcity to Surplus

Identifying economic and financial drivers of industrial livestock production - the case of the global chicken industry

“…However, it was not until 1974, through a joint venture (JV) between Venkateshwara Research and Breeding Farm (Venkys) and the USA-based Cobb Vantress called Venco, that grandparent stock of foreign breeds were imported to India. Venco cross bred Cobb with indigenous purelines in India to improve productivity while adapted to local Indian conditions, particularly high temperatures in India (Gulati, Zhou, Huang, Tal, & Juneja, 2021). The feed conversion ratio (FCR) for broilers reduced from 3.1 in 1970 to 1.65 in 2016-17 and the egg production of birds increased from 260 to 320 plus eggs per annum in this time (Gulati et al, 2021;Mehta, Narrod, & Tiongco, 2008) In the mid-1980s, in line with the Indian government's self-sufficiency policy for the economy, the import of grandparent stock was prohibited for the purpose of self-sufficiency in poultry genetic development.…”

“…Venco cross bred Cobb with indigenous purelines in India to improve productivity while adapted to local Indian conditions, particularly high temperatures in India (Gulati, Zhou, Huang, Tal, & Juneja, 2021). The feed conversion ratio (FCR) for broilers reduced from 3.1 in 1970 to 1.65 in 2016-17 and the egg production of birds increased from 260 to 320 plus eggs per annum in this time (Gulati et al, 2021;Mehta, Narrod, & Tiongco, 2008) In the mid-1980s, in line with the Indian government's self-sufficiency policy for the economy, the import of grandparent stock was prohibited for the purpose of self-sufficiency in poultry genetic development. The import ban on grandparent stock created a dependence on Venkys, which subsequently in the 1980s became the first vertically integrated company from grandparent and parent flocks, day old chicks, feed, vet extension and marketing (Gulati et al, 2021).…”

“…The IMF and World Bank's structural adjustment programmes (SAPs) policies of 1992, liberalised the poultry sector. The key change in the 1993-94 budget was the reduction of import duties on grandparent poultry germplasm from 105% to 40% with the idea to develop the domestic private poultry R&D via overseas knowledge (Gulati et al, 2021). Until 1995, imports of genetic stock were restricted to pure lines only, with the intention of protecting domestic broiler growers.…”

“…To follow up with the easing of import restrictions of grandparent stocks, import duties on grandparent stocks were further reduced from 40% to 20% (Gulati et al, 2021). Further liberalisation of the sector took place in 1999, when import tariffs for poultry products were reduced to 15% for poultry meat (chilled, fresh or frozen) and to 40% (processed meat from live poultry) (FAO, 2007).…”

“…India also dropped all quantitative restrictions on imports of poultry items, so grandparent breeding stock could be imported without any barriers. This incentivised more private investment in poultry breeding via imported grandparent stock, leading to higher productivity of pure line stock of improved parent lines (Gulati et al, 2021).…”