May 10, 2007

 

Thailand's Sun Group starts cooked chicken exports

 

 

With the completion of its processing plant in Saraburi, Thailand's Sun Group, an integrated poultry business, has resumed exporting chicken meat after a three-year suspension. 

 

Thailand was banned from chicken exports in 2004 due to bird flu in the country, the Bangkok Post reports. Although exports of raw poultry are banned, export of cooked poultry is allowed. 

 

With the completion of its THB 200 million (US$6.1 million) processing plant, the company has acquired the capability to ship cooked products abroad, said Somkiert Tangjaiavorn, president of Sun Food International Co.

 

The group started exporting about 100 tonnes a month of cooked meat to the EU in February and currently sells an average of 20,000 tonnes of poultry a month to the domestic market.

 

The chicken supply-and-demand situation in Thailand is also much more balanced now, he added. The industry's buffer stocks had been reduced from 100,000 tonnes a week to 60,000 tonnes currently, thus reducing the need to price chickens cheaply.

 

More shipments from the group are expected after Japanese authorities complete an inspection of the plant this month.

 

Japanese authorities are slated to inspect and certify four chicken meat processing plants in Thailand. Only 53 feed mills and processing plants in the country have met the certification standards required by Japan.

 

The Sun Group also aims to produce various semi-cooked and frozen processed food for small retailers in Japan so that they need not compete with the larger retailers on the same products. 

 

The group hopes sales to Japan would hit THB 3 billion this year, up from THB 2.6 billion last year.

 

The company expects export revenue to hit US$10 billion this year, although this was just a fifth of what it was before the ban. 

 

The bird flu ban forced the company to shift its focus on exports to the domestic market to concentrate on its chicken-rice franchise. It also helped the company branch into processed meat and fresh packaged chickens across the country.