Indian market for lamb growing

Cricketer Brendon McCullum (left) with Leela Palace Hotel chef Adrian Mellor in New Delhi. Photo / Supplied.

Encouraging growth over the past year shows there is potential to increase the volume of New Zealand lamb exported to India, QualityNZ India chief executive Geoff Thin says.

In 2013, Alliance Group signed a supply deal with QualityNZ to develop a new market for lamb in India.

QualityNZ was established to provide New Zealand products and services to Indian consumers, with a specific focus on the food and beverage, tourism and education sectors.

Its shareholders include former New Zealand cricket stars Brendon McCullum, Daniel Vettori, Stephen Fleming and Sir Richard Hadlee.

In a statement, Alliance Group said its Pure South lamb was now on the menu of a growing number of five-star hotels and high-end retail stores.

The product offering had been expanded to include 10 different cuts of frozen lamb. Sales were increasing and the co-operative was investing in developing the market further.

Although it was a market that would take time to mature, Alliance Group believed it would one day represent a significant export destination for the company, general manger sales Murray Brown said in a statement.

Mr Thin said the expansion of the product range and the change in India's food distribution channels had helped drive the recent growth.

Last year, QualityNZ was invited to be part of a New Zealand Government delegation to India. McCullum was also invited to join then prime minister John Key as a New Zealand ambassador on the trip.

Among his official duties, McCullum visited retail stores and joined QualityNZ customer Adrian Mellor, a chef at the Leela Palace Hotel in New Delhi, to cook marinated Pure South lamb shanks for the visitors, using a traditional Indian cooking method.