Industry stakeholders said trade volumes with Saudi Arabia have historically been minimal, with Indian shipments largely directed to other markets in the region.
Saudi Arabia’s ban on poultry imports will not have any material impact on India’s poultry sector, as the West Asian nation’s share is only negligible.
Saudi Arabia’s food safety regulator recently banned the import of poultry meat and table eggs from 40 countries, including India, as a precaution against bird flu and other animal diseases.
Industry stakeholders said trade volumes with Saudi Arabia have historically been minimal, with Indian shipments largely directed to other markets in the region. As a result, the ban is not expected to disrupt domestic production, pricing, or export realizations in any meaningful way.
Valsan Parameswaran, secretary of All India Poultry Products Exporters Association, said, “The Saudi ban will have no impact on the Indian poultry sector. Saudi is not importing from us.”
According to DGCIS data, India’s poultry exports to Saudi Arabia during 2024-25 stood at 79.74 tonnes, valued at $0.10 million, a fraction of the total poultry exports. India’s total poultry exports during the financial year 2024-25 were more than 10.34 lakh tonnes, valued at $168.77 million.
small part
India exports about 10 million eggs daily to West Asian countries, mainly from Namakkal in Tamil Nadu. “Our markets are mainly Oman, Türkiye, UAE and Qatar,” Parameswaran said. The share of exports in the total poultry meat and egg production in the country is very low.
Ricky Thapar, joint secretary, Poultry Federation of India, says, “This ban on import of poultry products by Saudi Arabia will not have any impact on the Indian poultry sector as the shipments to Saudi Arabia are limited and at the same time local demand and consumption is continuously increasing.”
Thapar said the Indian poultry industry is currently valued at $30 billion and employs 6 million people directly or indirectly. Broiler (meat purpose) bird population is 5.5 billion annually and layer (for egg purpose) population is 350 million. Plus, there are 40 million birds in the backyard.
India is the world’s largest producer of eggs with an annual production of 142.6 billion eggs.
Published on February 27, 2026
