India's Hindu nationalist party BJP plans crackdown on beef exports
India's main Hindu nationalist party says it plans to clamp down on beef exports if it takes power after general elections that end today, threatening supplies from one of the world's biggest shippers of the meat.
India's main Hindu nationalist party says it plans to clamp down on beef exports if it takes power after general elections that end today, threatening supplies from one of the world's biggest shippers of the meat.
Surprisingly in a country where so many view cows as sacred, India has been poised to top Brazil and become the top beef exporting nation, supplying markets such as Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam and Egypt.
Although most of that is from buffalo, which are not worshipped by Hindus, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants to curb exports that jar with the country's vegetarian tradition and to bolster the availability of animals reared to work on farms and for their milk.
They [the BJP] are against our trade and they may come with strict rules
A drop in Indian exports could buoy global cattle prices that have come off record peaks this year after the US herd was pegged at its lowest in more than six decades.
"If elected, we will crack down on beef exports and we will also review the subsidy the government gives for beef or buffalo meat exports," said Satpal Malik, the BJP vice-president who drafted the farm policy section of its election manifesto.
To help beef producers and exporters set up abattoirs, the federal government pays 50 to 75 per cent of construction costs.
The BJP manifesto defines the "cow and its progeny" as integral to India's cultural heritage - appealing to the party's core constituency of Hindus who abhor eating beef.
