Buffalo meat

Water buffalo on a farm in Great Britain

Buffalo meat (also buffen or carabeef) is the meat of the water buffalo, a creature raised for its milk and meat in countries including India, Bulgaria, Italy, Russia, Czechoslovakia and Egypt. It is known as “carabeef” in Philippines, Thailand and in some South East Asian countries. Sometime it is also named by age of Buffaloes like ‘Padwa’ as in India and Pakistan. Buffalo calves are often called as buffalo broilers and are bought up exclusively on milk for the purpose of meat only with standard norms of slaughter weight against a well-defined age.^[1][2]

Buffaloes are raised for milk and meat in countries like India, Bulgaria, Italy, Russia, Czechoslovakia and Egypt. Buffalo meat is called with various names in different countries. Buffalo meat is also called as “buffen”. Many places it is called as “carabeef” and this is popular in Philippines, Thailand and in some South East Asian countries. Sometime it is also named by age of Buffaloes like ‘Padwa’ as in India and Pakistan.. Buffalo calves are often called as buffalo broilers and are bought up exclusively on milk for the purpose of meat only with standard norms of slaughter weight against a well-defined age.^[1][2]

Social significance

Due to the socio-political and religious importance of the cow in India, there is a need to differentiate buffen from beef. In countries like India not only religiously but culturally also most of the population do not eat cow meat. In large part of Indian subcontinent slaughtering of cow is prohibited. Sometimes there is communal violence over cow slaughter or even its suspected consumption. ^[3]

Differences from beef

The Thai dish Yam tin khwai is a spicy and sour Northern Thai soup made with the hoof of a water buffalo

Buffalo are a type of cattle, but their meat is different from cow meat in many respects. The major differences between buffen and beef are:

• The fat within buffen is milky white, while the fat within beef is yellowy white.
• Buffen has lower fat content.
• Buffen is darker in color.
• Buffen has harder bones.

Buffen has a lower muscle pH of 5.6±0.4 whereas beef muscle has a pH of 6.4±0.7. It also has a significantly smaller amount of collagen in the muscle, but the species did not differ significantly in the degree of intramuscular collagen cross linking.^[4]

Production

Buffalo have exceptional muscular development and they have heavy weight, some weighing more than a tonne. The major purpose of buffalo is to obtain milk. India has the largest number of buffalo and is the largest producer of its milk. After using them for milk purpose they are used for meat also. In some places good buffalo for milk purpose can cost more than 2000 USD. Buffalo are considered one of the most usable animals in India. In India when we see cattle grazing on road, rarely we find buffalo among them.

Buffen from young animal is having much better quality as they have very high proportion of muscle and low proportion of fat as compared to other cattle meat. The highest quality buffen is known as "padwa", taken from a buffalo younger than 20 months.

India accounts for about 43% of the world buffen production, with Uttar Pradesh producing the maximum, then Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra. In the 21st century, buffen production in India is growing and is 4.1 million tonnes CWE (carcass weight equivalent) in 2014 to 4.3 million tonnes CWE in 2015.

In India during calendar year 2014 and 2015 consumption estimates are forecast to rise 3.1% and 3.5% to 2.1 and 2.175 million tonnes CWE,” the US Department of Agriculture report said. Reportedly, more young consumers are willing to explore new foods, including buffen, which may eventually drive future demand.

Quality parameters

For centuries buffalo have been used as draught animals as they have good muscular development. Buffalo are generally fed on coarse feeds; they convert them into protein rich lean meat. Buffaloes can be suitably grown in countries having poor feed resources.^[5] Thus, buffalos are generally raised using straw crop residues and they are very cheap to feed.

When buffalo is reared up to 20 month and fed with milk then there meat is of top quality. The buffen is lean and rich in protein and less in fat as compared to cattle. This has created a good demand of buffen for health conscious consumers (Desmond, 1990).Further it has been noted that buffalo have more resistance to diseases than cow. They are productive up to the age of 18 years. In the initial age they are used for milk production and when milk production come down they are slaughtered for meat. The nutrient requirements of buffalo steer constitute 1.8 Kg TDN, , 6.6 MCal ME 0.24 Kg DCP, 11 g P and 14 g Ca. On adlibitum and high concentrate (75:25) based rations the growth rate is 610 g/day (with feed efficiency of 7:1).^[6] The protein content in buffen is higher than chicken, and due to this buffen is also called poor people’s protein.

Indian exports

India is one of the world’s biggest exporter of buffen.^[7] According to US Department of Agriculture India leads over the next highest exporter-Brazil. In 2015 India has exported more than 2.4 million of buffen and its allied products. However Brazil has exported 2 million tonnes and Australia 1.5 million tonnes. These three countries constitutes 58.7 percent of all buffen exports. India has 23.5 % of global buffen exports. In FY2014 the export share of India was 20%.

As per data obtained from Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) most of India’s export is to Asian countries, as they are importing more than 80 per cent, while African countries imports around 15 %. Within Asia, while Vietnam imports 45% of the Carabeef exported from India.

Buffen exports from India have been growing at an average of approximately 14 % yearly since 2011, and fetched more than $4.8 billion in 2014. Last year, first time India has earned more from the export of buffen than it did from Basmati rice exports.

Several databases, such as Agricultural Outlook and United Nations Food show there is increasing trend of meat consumption in India. However, the data also shows that the consumption of buffen has been falling over the years, It has came down by (-) 44.5 per cent in 2014 from 2000. This fall in consumption has been taking place because of increase in price of buffen and death consciousness. Thus consumption of chicken went up by 31 per cent in that period. This shows white meat is taking place of red meat.

References

Further reading

• Kondaiah N (2002). Meat and by products.In: Handbook of Animal Husbandry. 3rd revised edition. pp. 950-975. New Delhi, India: DIPA, ICAR.