July 6, 2012

Bird flu outbreak in China, Mexico does not affect Charoen Pokphand

The latest bird flu outbreak in China and Mexico does not affect Charoen Pokphand Foods' operations, it said Thursday (July 5).

The company's key business in China is feed mill, not livestock or chicken farms, it said in a statement to the Stock Exchange of Thailand.

Charoen Pokphand is maintaining its average annual revenue growth target at 10-15% over the next five years, with an aim to push annual sales to THB600 billion (US$19.04 billion) in that timeframe, the statement said.

The company had said in April that it expects revenue this year to exceed THB300 billion (US$9.5 billion), up sharply from THB206 billion (US$6.5 billion) in 2011, thanks to recent business expansion into China and Vietnam.

The Thai firm also expects domestic meat prices to improve in the second half of this year, after persistent declines since the final quarter of last year, due to improving purchasing power of local consumers.

Meanwhile, the EU's plan to terminate the Generalised System of Preferences programme on many goods from Thailand, including processed shrimp products, could boost tariffs to 20% from 7% from January 2014, it said. Charoen Pokphand plans to use Malaysia and Vietnam as export bases for shrimp to mitigate the impact, the statement said.

The company exports around THB1 billion (US$31.6 million) worth of shrimp products each year.