siddharthfarms
Member
Dear Members,
For all of you who are interested to know the procedure involved to import live animal or its germplasm (semen & embryos).Here is my story which you might find useful.
As you know that we were into breeding of sheep for sometime now and out of the blue we decided to import an exotic breed into the state of karnataka for better.We zeroed in on the Dorper breed for its fantastic growth and adaptability, and also decided to bring it in the form of frozen embryos as it is very difficult to get AQCS clearance for live sheep.
This was our first live animal import except for a few dogs which we carried them as an extra baggage few years ago from USA.
We approached the local sheep development board in karnataka and put our proposal in writing to the managing director and requested him to recommend our proposal to the Union Govt through the state Govt to grant us import licenses for the import of Dorper sheep through embryos transfers into India.At the beginning of the discussion he was like " Are these guys in jeans and sport shoes serious and will they be able to pull it off ?"
But let me tell you,when we didn't have anything else to say he picked up his phone and had a word to the Director (Animal Husbandry) and also the The Joint commissioner (Live stock production) at Delhi and promised to get back to us on this.
After a week or so,There was letter from the karnataka sheep and wool development board recommending our project.Thus started the process of forming a company,applying for an IEC code and an application to the Joint Director general of foreign trade,Bangalore for the Import of Dorper sheep Embryos.
We knew that this was an restricted import and this has to go through the exim committee and without a NOC from the Ministry of Agriculture and AH this is not going anywhere.During my visits to Delhi on this i did get an opportunity to meet the Joint commissioner and Asst Commissioner (Live stock production) and they both took time but finally gave concurrence for the import with a condition that a proper post import documentation will be done on the adaptability,growth and reproductive parameters and shall be submitted by Siddharthfarms to the ministry and as we do that the flock is to be maintained as closed flock and not to be dispersed.I had to agree on that for better as some one has to do it so that the next doesn't have to...
Here comes the import permit from the DGFT with a clear print on it ( closed flock to be maintained untill growth parameters are documented).In the mean time we have finished selection of our embryos from the best of South African Lines (John Dell,Wolewater and TeinJordan) and paid the best of the price(400 $ for each) and also have involved an Australian company who had hands on experience in doing ET in India.
Along with the Import permit there was a very crucial paper (Sanitary Health Certificate) and most of the countries find it very difficult to give us health certificate recommended by the Indian Govt.Let me tell you the regional director told me very strictly not have grammar mistakes either and bring a replica and to our luck our exporter has given us a replica.
Finally after 18 months of hard work and waiting,The shipment containing the embryos arrived at the Chennai airport cargo complex and to my shock the Customs Department demanded 43% of the invoice value as Duty.We were expecting it to be 11% as these were embryos of purebred breeding animals imported for breeding purposes,they wouldn't listen and finally my project cost just go dearer and as we were not funded by any bank as the earlier importer goofed it up and has not repaid his loans and as our project was quite similar to his,the banks didn't oblige ,The duty for hard on us.
As we had a perfect health certificate the AQCS was very fast in giving u the clearance,The Customs duty was paid and had the shipment with us to be brought to Bangalore on the same day.
Sorry for being too long and my advice for small time sheep breeding and rearing units is that it is a quite tedious process ,it took us 18 months to get the Import permit as it is a restricted import and the Govt is very choosy in giving import permits for restricted items,Out of the 300 odd applications along with ours only 60 were considered for approval by the Exim Committee.
The the actual conception rate with frozen embryos varies from 60 % to 0%. (9% in the case of J&K Govt).Unless you really want to get into some serious and big time sheep rearing, don't bother to do this.
Best Regards
Ravi Prasad.D
Siddharthfarms@gmail.com
For all of you who are interested to know the procedure involved to import live animal or its germplasm (semen & embryos).Here is my story which you might find useful.
As you know that we were into breeding of sheep for sometime now and out of the blue we decided to import an exotic breed into the state of karnataka for better.We zeroed in on the Dorper breed for its fantastic growth and adaptability, and also decided to bring it in the form of frozen embryos as it is very difficult to get AQCS clearance for live sheep.
This was our first live animal import except for a few dogs which we carried them as an extra baggage few years ago from USA.
We approached the local sheep development board in karnataka and put our proposal in writing to the managing director and requested him to recommend our proposal to the Union Govt through the state Govt to grant us import licenses for the import of Dorper sheep through embryos transfers into India.At the beginning of the discussion he was like " Are these guys in jeans and sport shoes serious and will they be able to pull it off ?"
But let me tell you,when we didn't have anything else to say he picked up his phone and had a word to the Director (Animal Husbandry) and also the The Joint commissioner (Live stock production) at Delhi and promised to get back to us on this.
After a week or so,There was letter from the karnataka sheep and wool development board recommending our project.Thus started the process of forming a company,applying for an IEC code and an application to the Joint Director general of foreign trade,Bangalore for the Import of Dorper sheep Embryos.
We knew that this was an restricted import and this has to go through the exim committee and without a NOC from the Ministry of Agriculture and AH this is not going anywhere.During my visits to Delhi on this i did get an opportunity to meet the Joint commissioner and Asst Commissioner (Live stock production) and they both took time but finally gave concurrence for the import with a condition that a proper post import documentation will be done on the adaptability,growth and reproductive parameters and shall be submitted by Siddharthfarms to the ministry and as we do that the flock is to be maintained as closed flock and not to be dispersed.I had to agree on that for better as some one has to do it so that the next doesn't have to...
Here comes the import permit from the DGFT with a clear print on it ( closed flock to be maintained untill growth parameters are documented).In the mean time we have finished selection of our embryos from the best of South African Lines (John Dell,Wolewater and TeinJordan) and paid the best of the price(400 $ for each) and also have involved an Australian company who had hands on experience in doing ET in India.
Along with the Import permit there was a very crucial paper (Sanitary Health Certificate) and most of the countries find it very difficult to give us health certificate recommended by the Indian Govt.Let me tell you the regional director told me very strictly not have grammar mistakes either and bring a replica and to our luck our exporter has given us a replica.
Finally after 18 months of hard work and waiting,The shipment containing the embryos arrived at the Chennai airport cargo complex and to my shock the Customs Department demanded 43% of the invoice value as Duty.We were expecting it to be 11% as these were embryos of purebred breeding animals imported for breeding purposes,they wouldn't listen and finally my project cost just go dearer and as we were not funded by any bank as the earlier importer goofed it up and has not repaid his loans and as our project was quite similar to his,the banks didn't oblige ,The duty for hard on us.
As we had a perfect health certificate the AQCS was very fast in giving u the clearance,The Customs duty was paid and had the shipment with us to be brought to Bangalore on the same day.
Sorry for being too long and my advice for small time sheep breeding and rearing units is that it is a quite tedious process ,it took us 18 months to get the Import permit as it is a restricted import and the Govt is very choosy in giving import permits for restricted items,Out of the 300 odd applications along with ours only 60 were considered for approval by the Exim Committee.
The the actual conception rate with frozen embryos varies from 60 % to 0%. (9% in the case of J&K Govt).Unless you really want to get into some serious and big time sheep rearing, don't bother to do this.
Best Regards
Ravi Prasad.D
Siddharthfarms@gmail.com
Last edited: