Beef off India's menu, but Aussie sheepmeat export prospects look tasty

The world's biggest vegetarian nation is emerging as a hungry market for Australian lamb chops. More generally, sheep and goat meat products are considered likely to be one of our most consistent agricultural growth exports to rapidly urbanising India in the next decade or two. The outlook is also optimistic for wool, which already outpaces most Australian farm exports to India, but represents a modest five per cent of our total overseas sales in the category. Although the sheepmeat trade has leapt from a low base, the value of the Indian market to Australia has already doubled from just $500,000 five years ago to more than $1.1 million last year, and it continues climbing at the same rate. While beef is almost universally off the menu for Indian consumers, contrary to popular belief, less than 40 per cent of the nation's 1.4 billion population is vegetarian. Chicken, seafood and sheep and goat products feature alongside pulses, wheat and rice-based foods in the national diet, ...