13 Feb 2026

India-US interim trade deal: A lifeline for sustainable feed

Rising demand for poultry and dairy products drives India’s need for imported feed ingredients, as domestic corn and soybean meal production struggles to keep pace.

Ricky Thaper

Joint Secretary of the Poultry Federation of India

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India-US interim deal to ensure sustainable animal feed supplies to boost poultry industry growth

Under the India-US interim-trade, a decision to eliminate or cut duties on a range of items from the US including dried distillers’ grains (DDGS) and red sorghum, is likely to ensure steady supplies of animal feed in coming years.

The livestock sector—dairy, poultry, fisheries and allied sectors—is witnessing a much faster growth than the cereal sector, there is apprehension that domestic feed production may not be able to ensure steady supplies while exposing the sector to price volatility.

Domestic production of corn and protein sources like soybean meal often fall short of growing demand of poultry, dairy and fisheries sector.

The local feed supply is increasingly constrained by limited arable land and productivity gaps. Feed costs constitute 60-65% of the cost of the production of the animal husbandry sector and any volatility in the feed prices lead to rise in cost of production and subsequent rise in prices.

As demand for dairy and poultry products increase with rising incomes and urbanization, the US Department of Agriculture, in its report titled ‘The Growing Demand for Animal Products and Feed in India’, has stated that at the current growth in its soybean and corn productivity, India would be unable to its meet rising demand for feed.

Feed demand is projected to grow faster than domestic supply, making large scale imports of soybeans and corn necessary by the early 2030s.

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A recent report had also stated that domestic production of soybean and corn would not be able to keep up with the rising demand for feed. Thus, feed ingredients imports can help bridge the demand-supply gap.

*Ricky Thaper, Joint Secretary, Poultry Federation of India has urged that import of soybean meal to be added to the list of duty-free/less duties imports of agricultural products, including DDGs, red sorghum for animal feed, which would be beneficial for the poultry, dairy and aqua industry.

By ensuring a timely and cost-effective supply of these essential feed ingredients, the government can directly address the challenge of feed inflation. This will not only stabilize production costs for poultry, dairy and aqua farmers but shall also ensure that high-quality protein remains affordable for humans.

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