Which is India’s best-performing agricultural export item?

The answer: Buffalo meat, the shipments of which surged by 25.6% to $5.1 billion in 2025-26 (April-March). The current fiscal has seen further growth, a whopping 66.6% from $896.8 million in April-June 2025 to nearly $1.5 billion in April-June 2026.

“We crossed $5 billion for the first time last fiscal and are on track to do $6 billion-plus in 2026-27,” said a Commerce Ministry official.

But it’s not just overall value increase. More impressive is the value realisation per tonne.

In 2014-15, India exported 14.8 lakh tonnes (lt) of buffalo meat worth $4.8 billion, translating into an average value of $3,240 per tonne. The subsequent years till 2023-24 recorded a drop in the value as well as quantity of exports (see charts), and also average realisations to $2,700-3,000 levels.

Source: Department of Commerce.

The revival started in 2024-25, when exports touched $4.1 billion at a unit value of $3,236 per tonne. The latter number rose to $3,591 in 2025-26 and $4,392 during April-June 2026.

“The higher unit value realisations indicate improved product acceptability of Indian buffalo meat. This has been enabled by government policy, allowing exports only from plants registered by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) that is conditional upon their meeting stringent safety, hygiene and infrastructure requirements. We also ensure ongoing compliance through periodic and surprise inspections,” the official explained.

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Source: Department of Commerce.

India has 83 APEDA-approved integrated abattoirs-cum-meat processing plants that can handle between 500 and 2,000 large animals (buffaloes) each daily. In addition, there are five standalone slaughterhouses and 10 meat processing plants registered by APEDA for export purpose.

Market widening and deepening

“In the last couple of years, we have consciously worked at making Indian buffalo meat a global brand and not a number two alternative to cattle beef. The world too is recognising our product quality and safety standards,” claimed Fauzan Alavi, secretary of the All-India Buffalo and Sheep Meat Exporters Association.

This is reflected in Indian buffalo meat being previously exported at $3,000 per tonne versus $5,000 for Brazilian beef. That gap or discount has since reduced to $500-700 per tonne

India is the world’s third largest bovine meat exporter. Its projected volume of 17 lt (in carcass weight equivalent) for 2026 is next to Brazil’s 42.8 lt and Australia’s 21.6 lt, as per US Department of Agriculture data. The country’s top three exporters are the Mumbai-based Allanasons Private Ltd, the Abu Dhabi-headquartered LuLu Group-owned Fair Exports India, and HMA Agro Industries, Agra.

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Indian buffalo meat, also called carabeef, is widely used for processed industrial foods such as sausages, burger patties, emulsified nuggets, canned and ready-to-eat products. But there’s a concerted attempt now at boosting value realisation by selling more through retail channels – including in 1-kg or less consumer packs, as against 20-30 kg bulk frozen blocks.

APEDA has, since October 29, been imposing a Rs 250/tonne levy on exports of all frozen and chilled buffalo meat. The proceeds go towards a Meat Export Development Fund, similar to the one created for basmati rice in 2008.

“The fund is meant for promoting exports, both to new and existing markets. It covers activities from sponsoring trade delegation visits and international buyer-seller fairs, to addressing non-tariff barriers restricting market access,” the earlier-quoted official added.

That these efforts are bearing fruit is borne out by the diversification of export destinations.

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In 2014-15, 45% of India’s $4.8 billion buffalo meat exports went to Vietnam ($2.2 billion), followed by Malaysia ($422.9 million), Egypt ($422.3 million), Thailand ($393.4 million), Saudi Arabia ($259 million), United Arab Emirates ($130.8 million), Algeria ($125.1 million) and Philippines ($115.8 million).

Cut to 2025-26, where out of the total $5.1 billion, 10 countries imported over $100 million worth each: Vietnam ($933.9 million), Egypt ($725 million), Malaysia ($654.1 million), UAE ($444.2 million), Saudi Arabia ($359.3 million), Uzbekistan ($307 million), Indonesia ($301.3 million), Iraq ($300.1 million), Philippines ($176.6 million) and Jordan ($105.5 million).

“Uzbekistan is a new market. So are others that have become significant buyers: Russia ($97.5 million), Georgia ($70.5 million), Oman ($82.7 million) and Senegal ($70.9 million),” the official noted.

Supporting the dairy economy

The success story of buffalo meat exports isn’t limited to market expansion leading to higher unit value realisations. It also ticks all the right boxes with respect to India’s livestock economy and its dairy farmers.

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India doesn’t permit export of beef (cattle meat). Even export of carabeef is from buffaloes that do not produce enough milk after around five calvings/lactations (when they would be 8-9 years old), are infertile, have damaged udders or happen to be male. For farmers, maintaining them is uneconomical, both direct and indirect in terms of diverting fodder, feed, water and labour resources away from bovines giving milk now or in future.

By providing a market for unproductive animals, the meat export industry has been complementary to dairying. A buffalo weighing, say 400 kg, yields roughly 125 kg of meat, with bones, hide, edible and non-edible offals, blood, horns, hooves and undigested food/ingesta constituting the rest.

Taking an average boneless meat yield of 100 kg, the 14-15 lt exported annually would entail culling of 1.4-1.5 crore animals. Given India’s total buffalo population of 11 crore (2019 Livestock Census), it allows farmers to systematically replace their low-yielding/aging animals with high-milking/young stock. The recommended herd turnover ratio for commercial dairy cattle is, in fact, 25-30%.

“In Brazil, Australia or US, beef cattle compete with dairy cattle for scarce resources. In India, we have no such competition because cattle and buffaloes aren’t raised specifically for meat. Only non-milk yielding buffaloes are culled, which is actually beneficial to the dairy sector,” an industry source pointed out.

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The purchase price that abattoirs pay for buffaloes is based on carcass yield – basically the weight of meat and bones. This is usually 47-48% of live weight, working out to about 190 kg for a 400-kg buffalo. The going rate for animals delivered at plants in Uttar Pradesh today is Rs 300-320 per kg of carcass weight. On 190 kg, that comes to Rs 57,000-60,800.

For a dairy farmer, a 3.5-4-year-old, first-time lactating buffalo capable of producing 2,000 litres or more annually costs Rs 1.25-1.5 lakh. If the farmer realises Rs 50,000 for a spent buffalo, it can cover at least a third of the cost for a new productive animal. The meat industry, thus, adds to the viability of her dairy enterprise, by making it possible to regularly replace older buffaloes with fresh stock.

Bullish on buffalo

That has relevance in the present time, when demand for high-fat milk in India is growing at twice the rate of normal toned milk, according to R.S. Sodhi, former managing director of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation.

“We are also seeing higher growth for ghee, cream, paneer, ice-cream and khoa-based sweets. The cut in their goods and services tax rates to 0-5%, besides recent crackdowns on adulterated ghee and analogue khoa and paneer, has further fuelled demand for these products. And they all require high-fat milk, which comes largely from buffaloes,” he noted.

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Dairy plants in UP are procuring buffalo milk at a rate of Rs 880-920 per kg fat. For 6.5% fat milk, the corresponding price would be Rs 59-62 per litre. With an average Rs 60/litre realisation from sale of milk and Rs 50,000 from old/unfit animals, farmers have incentive to rear buffaloes and augment production on the back of rising consumer demand.

What buffalo meat exporters are seeking is policy predictability and stability. They point to five plants in UP – A.Q. Frozen Foods (Amroha), Al-Falah Global and Al-Rehman Frozen Foods (Sambhal), Al Haq Foods (Unnao) and Omar International (Bijnor) – that have been shut down, despite meeting all the compliances for APEDA registration.

“The Yogi Adiyanath administration is clear about two things – no culling of govansh (cattle) and no illegal slaughterhouses operating without licence – and we completely welcome that. Our problems are when officials at lower levels follow rules different from that laid at the top,” the industry source clarified.