May 3 2010

Russia's interest to stimulate Thai raw chicken exports

Russia's interest to buy raw chicken meat from Thailand has raised hopes that Thai exports of fresh chicken meat could revive after years of sluggish sales in the wake of the bird flu outbreak.

The Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance of Russia has approved 21 Thai chicken exporters after carrying out intensive inspections late last year. Imports will be permitted from this month, said the Thai Broiler Processing Exporters Association.

Companies on the list include Better Foods, Cargill, Central Food, Charoen Pokphand Foods, GFPT, Laemthong, Saha Farms and Sun Food.

Thailand's exports would partly compensate for US chicken, which failed to meet Russia's new safety requirements, which banned imports of chlorine- treated poultry from January 1, 2010.

Russia is the world's largest chicken importer, with about 750,000 tonnes of imports last year, of which 600,000 tonnes came from the US, said the association.

Russian authorities met with the Thai consul-general Sompong Sanguabun early this year and expressed interest in buying chicken from Thailand if Thai products could comply with Russian veterinary and sanitary standards.

The association's secretary-general Prasert Anuchiracheeva said the US exclusion from the Russian market creates an opportunity for Thailand, the world's leading chicken supplier.

Russian demand could also help revive Thailand's raw chicken meat exports, which have been slow since 2004 after the Thai poultry industry was devastated by bird-flu outbreaks, he said.

Avian flu plunged Thai raw chicken meat exports to near zero, down from more than 300,000 tonnes a year before H5N1 emerged. Despite the flu outbreak, Thailand remains the world's largest chicken exporter. But most of its shipments in the past five years have been cooked and semi-cooked products. Last year, the country shipped out 397,000 tonnes of chicken products, of which only 18,200 tonnes were raw meat.

Thailand had targeted to export about 400,000 tonnes of chicken meat in 2010 but the volume is now set to rise with new orders from Russia and Bahrain, which has expressed an intention to import up to 150,000 tonnes of fresh chicken meat a year from Thailand.