October 20, 2005

Europe's bird flu may boost Thai frozen chicken exports
 

The bird flu outbreak in Eastern Europe is expected to help boost Thailand's frozen chicken exports by 67 percent this year to 300,000 tonnes, from 180,000 tonnes in 2004, CP Foods (CPF) president Adirek Srepratak said.

This is because Western European countries would be ordering more chickens from Asia, Srepratak said, predicting that CPF chicken exports would rise 30 percent from last year to hit 90,000 tonnes this year.

Thailand's frozen chicken exports during the first eight months of 2005 earned US$500 million, up 51 percent from the same period last year. Major export markets include Japan, the EU and Singapore, according to the country's Commerce Ministry.

Since 2003's bird flu outbreak in Thailand, the country has taken measures to contain the disease, such as mass culling more than 66 million chickens in 2004, implementing a nationwide surveillance system for fresh outbreaks and putting in place a generous compensation system for affected small-scale poultry farmers.