July 17, 2003

 

EU To Relax It's 100% Checks On Thai Chicken Exports

 

Thailand's chicken exports to European Union markets are expected to pick up this year because the E.U. has agreed to relax its strict sanitary checks on Thai chicken, Anan Sirimongkolkasem, president of the Thai Broiler Processing Exporters Association, said in a statement released Wednesday.

  

The E.U. agreed Tuesday to implement random quality checks on 20% of Thai chicken exports to the E.U., instead of checking 100% of exports as it did last year, Anan said. If no contamination is found within an undisclosed time period, the E.U. will revert to checking only 10% of chicken exports as it did prior to the rule tightening last year, he added.

 

The E.U. will officially announce its decision on the 20% random checks within the next seven to ten days and the relaxed checks will be effective within 72 hours of the formal announcement.

 

"We expect chicken exports to the E.U. this year will reach 220,000 (metric) tons and be worth $336 million...The Thai chicken industry will have a bright outlook from now on," Anan said in the statement.

 

The E.U. had imposed the strict sanitary checks on Thai chicken and shrimp exports after finding contaminated substances in some products. The E.U. has already dropped its strict checks on Thai shrimp after the Thai government last year introduced steps to assure the E.U. about the safety of shrimp and chicken exports.

 

As a result of the EU's rigorous checks, Thai chicken exports last year fell to 128,097 tons, Anan said. Comparative data wasn¡¯t available.

 

The earlier outbreak of the SARS virus in China, also a chicken exporter, and the spread of bird flu in Netherlands have together helped boost Thai chicken prices and demand in the E.U. market, Anan said in the statement.

 

Thailand exported 71,610 tons of chicken in the first five months of this year, compared with 50,466 tons in the same period a year ago.

 

Thai chicken is sold to the E.U. at $2,400/ton currently, from around $1,700-1,800/ton earlier in the year, Anan said.

 

Thailand's total chicken exports reached 206,433 tons in the first five months of the year and exports for the full year will likely reach 500,000 tons valued at 52 billion baht ($1=THB41.551), Anan said.