Economical Japanese cars have had an epochal relationship with India, but Suzuki’s latest foray into what is one of the world’s fastest growing economies is even cheaper, and a lot tastier. The auto major is teaming up with Japan’s leading egg manufacturer, ISE Foods, to bring the latter’s protein-packed offerings to India’s billion-plus consumers. Globally, ISE’s chickens lay about 20 million eggs a day. The company has been in business for over 100 years and has major operations in the U.S., China and ASEAN countries. And it is now counting on its chickens hatching in India.
The Suzuki-ISE venture in India has recently signed memoranda of agreement to begin operating two poultry farms, the smaller one in Surat, Gujarat, and the larger 1.2 million-strong chicken farm in Siddipet, Telangana. Operations should begin in a few months.
Takashi Shimada, who is assisting ISE’s entry into India, says the potential for growth is huge. In India, about one egg per week is consumed per capita, compared to one egg per day, per capita in Japan. The company isn’t worried about the reputation of Indians as egg-shunning vegetarians. Its research shows that in States like Andhra Pradesh, over 98% of people are non-vegetarian and even in Gujarat, a traditional bastion of the egg-averse, about 40% of residents will happily eat an omelet on offer. That’s a lot of eggs given that Gujarat’s 62 million people are equal to about 50% of Japan’s entire population.
ISE’s egg production process is amongst the most hygienic in the world, almost fully automated — right from the laying of eggs to their collection and eventual sorting. The chickens are completely antibiotic-free and the eggs are transported from the farms to the factories within 24 hours.
In India, antibiotics are widely used in the poultry sector as growth promoters, even though this practice is illegal in many parts of the world. Salmonella poisoning through eggs is also rampant, a bacterial infection that ISE claims to have eliminated by ensuring that its eggs are maintained at low temperatures, even during the crucial distribution stage.
The Japanese certainly love eggs, and like with many food items, it is common to eat them raw, freshly broken over a bowl of hot rice, or in soup, an indication of how much confidence the public has in egg safety. But Japan’s love affair with eggs is relatively new, dating to the Edo period (1603-1867), before which eggs were used primarily for medicinal purposes or as sacred offerings. Diets change with economic development, and ISE believes that a major shift in India’s food consumption patterns is in the offing, equivalent to the boom years in post-Second World War Japan.
Converting eggs to art
ISE’s Tokyo office is decorated not only with rows of model egg cartons, but also priceless works of oval-shaped art. The company’s chairman, Hikonobu Ise, is in fact one of Japan’s leading collectors of art and antiquities, with a published biography titled Selling Eggs to Buy Picassos .
Whether or not Mr. Ise acquires some Indian art is a development the art world will be keeping an eye out for. In the meantime, ISE has diversified into the sporting world, with an agreement to supply premium eggs for free to the Pullela Gopichand Badminton Academy until the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020. “We love P.V. Sindhu here,” said Mr. Shimada.
In India, ISE hopes to get the eggs rolling with an initial output of four billion a year, priced at the higher end, for hygiene-conscious city slickers. A bit of Japan on the breakfast table seems imminent.
Pallavi Aiyar is an author and journalist based in Tokyo
