CLFMA of India (Compounded Livestock Feed Manufacturers Association of India) is an valuable USSEC ally.  CLFMA is an important Indian trade association that takes up and resolves animal husbandry issues along with being a key interface to the Indian government that helps introduce industry-friendly reforms, such as a significant past reform to implement a temporary zero duty on soymeal imports.  Notably, this trade association is poised on the consumption side of businesses, thus USSEC and the U.S. Grains Council (USGC) maintain paid memberships and enjoy close trade and tech associations with CLFMA.

Given the need to address raw material security, particularly corn and soy requirements by India’s growing poultry and aquaculture industries, CLFMA invited USSEC and USGC to recommend ways to continue further biotech discussions with the Indian government.  USSEC Country Director – India Dr. P. E. Vijay Anand, R. Umakanth, USSEC Aquaculture Consultant – India, and Amit Sachdev, India Representative – USGC, expressed important, need-based views at a meeting with CLFMA’s management committee on November 22 in Chandigarh (North India).
Points included bringing forth a deeper introspection of current standards for GMOs in India; the status of imports for processed products; the interface of the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Environment and the Ministry of Agriculture in reiterating where/if a biotech “ban” actually exists (for example, biotech processed products are not stated as banned commodities for use in animal feeds); developing pathways to engage organizations such as ABLE-AG (Association of Biotechnology Led Enterprises - Agriculture) to voice requirements; channeling companies that own trade (Monsanto, Syngenta, Bayer Crop Science, Pioneer, DuPont, et al.) to supply biotech information to decision-making bodies; and whether to renew the debate on whether permission from India’s Genetic Engineering Approval Committee (GEAC) is required for imports of processed biotech soy and corn products.  Most discussions at the meetings were based on addressing non-tariff barriers concerning GM soy and corn products.
USSEC and USGC leadership in India strongly recommended to CLFMA that these discussions must continue if additional raw material sourcing to address raw material security for animal feed milling is being sought for India.  As an outcome of this meeting, CLFMA of India has requested more focused, single-point biotech meetings in the near future.