PWO to build warehouses in Myanmar for distribution of Thai products
Thailand’s Public Warehouse Organisation (PWO) will set up warehouses in Myanmar to facilitate exports and help overcome losses incurred during the Covid crisis.
PWO director Kriangsak Prateepvisut signed a memorandum of understanding with his Myanmar counterpart Maha Shwe Ngwe last week.
This is the first PWO warehouse to be set up outside Thailand since the agency was established in 1955.
The new PWO warehouses in Myanmar, to be used to distribute consumer products exported from Thailand, will not just boost Thai exports but also give Thai exporters a competitive edge, Kriangsak said. The new warehouses will also help Thai online sellers penetrate the Myanmar market, he added.
Apart from Myanmar, the agency is also looking to set up warehouses in other countries and is in the midst of negotiations with China, India and countries in the Middle East.
Kriangsak explained that these warehouses aim to meet deliveries in time, so Thai exporters have an edge over their competitors from other countries. He added that logistical link-ups and warehouses in other countries will also help PWO overcome its cumulative losses.
Apart from setting up warehouses in Myanmar, PWO also plans to join hands with the country to promote the cultivation of soybean because Thailand still needs to import more than 2 million tonnes of soybean and 2 million tonnes of soybean meal for animal feed.
In another business plan, the PWO will build new cold storage warehouses on its unused plot in Bangkok’s Rat Burana district.
Once it gets a licence for operating cold storage warehouses, it will build new warehouses with a storage capacity of 50,000 tonnes. This project, Kriangsak said, should help PWO turn a profit for the first time and even generate revenue for investment in other projects.
The PWO is also planning to build warehouses to store goat meat in Krabi, beef in Surin and cold storage for seafood in Udon Thani, Kriangsak said.
