How Namakkal Became the Egg City
Namakkal is the 2nd largest egg producer in India after Andhra Pradesh. India’s poultry exports had touched a high of ₹1,081 crores ($134.04 million) during 2022-23, doubling over the previous year’s ₹529.8 crores ($71 million) on rising demand for eggs and egg products among others. Out of all Indian exports Namakkal exported 95% of India’s table eggs which is why Namakkal became the egg city.
How Namakkal Became the Egg City
Let’s take a look at how Namakkal became the Egg City that it is today.
This town produces up to 5-6 crores eggs per day. But this was not always the case. In the 1960s some of the Namakkal’s transport traders pivoted to poultry farms. By the 1990s the town was bustling with poultry farms with more than 5000 poultry farms.
In post-modernization, these poultry farms moved to multi-story buildings. As a result, small poultry farm owners were forced to disappear and the number of poultry farms fell to 1100. Despite a decrease in poultry farms, the number of eggs produced kept increasing because each flock could handle 10,000 to 2 lakh birds.
As the business expanded the government took action to help the farmers and established NECC, National Egg Coordination Committee in Namakkal to ensure that poultry farmers got a fair price and Egg rates were set up fairly.
In exports, Namakkal tops the country handling 95% of egg exports across the country.
To export an egg it should have 52 to 55 grams of weight, only then it would be easy to pack and transport. The main importer of Namakkal eggs is United Arab Emirates. Every month around 8 crore eggs are exported to Qatar, Dubai and Muscat. During the FIFA world cup the number of eggs exported soared from 1.5 to 2.5 crores.
Impact of the Russia-Ukraine War
Due to the Russia-Ukraine war, Malaysia is struggling to get poultry feed for its birds. Namakkal saw this as an opportunity and began exporting eggs to Malaysia.
Another reason that Namakkal can export more eggs is that it can gather eggs in a 60 km radius and send the eggs in freezer containers to Tutokorin, Chennai, and Kochi harbors.
Russia is also undergoing an egg crisis. The crisis is so severe that usually, stoic President Putin had to come forward and apologize to the public. He considered this a failure for himself and the country. Talks are underway with Namakkal to export eggs to Russia. If it happens it will be indeed a huge opportunity fo the people of Tamil Nadu and Namakkal.
Impact of the Pandemic:
Like many other industries, the poultry industry was also hit by covid-19 crisis. There have been massive increases in poultry feed costs. Poultry feed costs have an impact on the prices of eggs. One of the effects was seen this winter when the price of a single egg reached to more than Rs, 6.
A long-pending demand of Namakkal’s poultry farmers is to declare Namakkal an avian disease-free zone. If for whatever reason, bird flu breaks out in Namakkal it will affect the egg exports and have a direct impact on the poultry exports and revenue in India.
