India currently produces 70 billion eggs yearly and is ranked third in world egg production.  With this sector growing annually at a six to seven percent rate, it is one of the potential soy utilization sectors upon which USSEC India has set its sights.  The layer industry in India currently uses 0.85-1.2 million tons of soybean meal in chicken feeds.

USSEC Director – India Animal Feed, Aquaculture and Soy Meal Program Dr. P.E. Vijay Anand believes that innovative marketing programs and communication tools must be continuously developed in order to target the layer industry by increasing its dependency on soymeal.  Soy use in this sector is dictated by price, but USSEC has been regularly demonstrating the positive returns on egg production when soybean meal is used at optimum proportions in the rations.
In order to take advantage of relatively lower prices of soymeal after this season’s soybean harvests, USSEC India conducted a feed technology workshop for the layer industry in South India called “Front Running – For the Layer Industry” in India’s second-ranked egg producing province.  USSEC and Amman Enterprises jointly conducted this event for about 72 progressive layer industry representatives that held 10.20 million birds.  Amman Enterprises, a close industry associate of USSEC, trades 96,000 metric tons of soymeal to this potential layer belt as well as conducting its broiler operations.  The managing director of Amman stated that his soymeal business in the broiler and the layer sector has been growing steadily and the extra space available in the layer industry should bring in progress on all fronts.

Dr. Anand and Dr. Pawan Kumar, USSEC’s North/East India Animal Feed Consultant, designed a two-speaker presentation module where they alternated using a single presentation to more effectively relate soy-related messages to the audience.  The content focused on factors that determine increased soybean meal consumption in the world; international and national level research and development; differentiation of soy over other competing protein meals; branding of eggs; adopting new egg promotion techniques; and other approaches to generate better revenue from eggs.  Dr. Pawan engaged the audience in discussions following the presentation, followed by live demonstrations on bird post-mortems to show what happens inside the layer bird with reference to nutrient absorption and other abnormalities that can occur due to improper nutritional interventions.  Biomin regional technical manager Dr. Randy Payawal of Singapore rendered his expertise on the post-mortems, and deliberations were tied together from a business perspective by popular writer, management guru and economist Soma Valliappana.  Mr. Valliappana spoke on unique business case studies and industry examples and provided thought-provoking suggestions to trigger change and further growth in the layer industry.
The Tamil Nadu province is home to about 50.80 million layer birds that produce 50 million eggs every day.  A measurement factor developed by USSEC estimates that every egg needs 8.50, 12.20 and 18.30 g of soybean meal at 7, 10 and 15 percent inclusion respectively.  Dr. Yadu Nandan, USSEC Animal Feed Consultant in South India, stresses that ensuring soymeal use at the best inclusion slab with need-based market programs determines the dependency on soy.  Similarly, the USSEC team identifies and propagates consumption or the value addition drive.  The formula is that every additional egg consumed per capita in India will create an opportunity for 16,000 tons of soybean meal.
Dr. Anand and Dr. Pawan feel that increasing soy inclusions via meal differentiation and steering the industry to add nutritional and marketing value to eggs for better consumption are two effective USSEC marketing tools.