Market competition for imported agricultural raw materials in the Indian animal feed industry

The Indian animal feed industry, crucial for sustaining the country's livestock and poultry sector, heavily relies on a diverse range of feed ingredients such as soybean meal, corn, wheat, broken rice, and various energy and protein sources. Several of these commodities are in short supply for various reasons, including but not limited to stagnant productivity. Most of these commodities are imported from the world market to meet the supply shortage. The present study investigates the market competition among the exporting countries from which India imports 13 specific agricultural raw materials for feed ingredients over the decennial years of 2000, 2010 and 2020. We utilize data from the United Nations Comtrade database. Our analysis reveals India's significant dependency on specific Asian nations, notably China, as a key source of these agricultural raw material imports. Import costs vary, prompting India to diversify its sources of imports of these agricultural commodities, spanning different continents. Such diversification of import sources is largely driven by cost-effectiveness in a competitive global market. This study provides valuable insights into India's import dynamics and trade partnerships on these key agricultural commodities used by the feed industries (as well as some food industries), thereby offering essential information for the feed industry, commodity traders and policymakers.