After intensive inspections conducted in 2009, Russia's Federal Service for Veterinary and Phytosanitary Surveillance now approves 21 Thai chicken exporters to the country, according to the Thai Broiler Processing Exporters Association.

 

The association's secretary-general Praset Anuchiracheeva says the US exclusion from the Russian market creates an opportunity for Thailand to be a major international chicken supplier, reviving its raw chicken meat exports.

 

The market for the Thai poultry industry has been slow since 2004 after it was devastated by bird flu outbreaks. Raw chicken exports have plunged down to near zero from 300,000 tonnes the year before H5NI emerged.

 

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

 

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