May 16, 2014

The Philippines - the last country in ASEAN to ban Thai frozen chicken - will soon consider lifting the ban.

The Philippine Agriculture Department recently told Thailand's Trade Negotiations Department that it planned to lift the ban on Thai frozen chicken that has been in effect since 2004, said deputy director-general of Thailand's Trade Negotiations Department, Somkiat Triratpan.

"Thailand should enjoy more opportunities to increase shipments to the Philippines, which is one of the high-potential markets for chicken," said Somkiat.

Thailand has sent many negotiation teams to persuade the Philippines to allow imports of Thai poultry.

"The Philippines has high confidence to import frozen chicken from Thailand as it acknowledges our high sanitary standards after many countries have already cancelled import bans on Thai chicken," Somkiat said.

The other markets that were closed to Thai frozen chicken but are now open include the European Union, Japan, Bahrain, Hong Kong, South Africa, Russia and the United Arab Emirates.

Manila had stopped buying frozen and processed chicken from Thailand because of a bird-flu outbreak in the country.

Thailand is the world's fourth-largest chicken exporter after Brazil, the United States and the European Union. From 2009 to 2013, Thai chicken exports grew 9% annually on average. Last year, they were valued at US$2.04 billion.

Major overseas markets for Thai chicken are Japan, accounting for 37.9% of total exports by value, the European Union at 37.8%, ASEAN at 14.0% and other countries at 9.2%.