THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Thailand’s gain as Chinese shun pork for chicken

Thailand’s gain as Chinese shun pork for chicken

African swine fever has turned out to be a boon for Thai poultry exporters.

Seven Thai firms are licensed to ship poultry to China, where the disease was first detected in August 2018 and led to the culling of tens of thousands of pigs in a bid to stem its spread.
It also resulted in a dramatic shift in Chinese meat preferences from pork to chicken – and a matching hike in the retail price of poultry.
African swine fever – which cannot be transmitted to humans – has in the past year made its way around the world, affecting 10 European countries, four in Africa and four in Asia, migrating from China to Mongolia, Vietnam and Cambodia. The spread has yet to be contained.
Kukrit Areepakorn, manager of the Thai Broiler Processing Exporters Association, said the price of pork in China has skyrocketed since the government there began culling pigs, but the mass shift to chicken has also doubled the price of poultry.
China’s Certification and Accreditation Administration last year authorised just seven Thai chicken processors to export frozen meat and by-products there. Two are affiliates of CPF and the others are GFPT, Saha Farm, Goldenline, Thai Food Group and F&F Food.
“We haven’t seen chicken prices like this before,” Kukrit said. “Chicken’s feet sell for $4,200 per tonne, up from $2,000 last year, and mid-joint wings have gone from $3,000 to $5,300. It’s extremely fortunate for the seven companies that are able to export to China.”
The number of Thai firms involved could grow.
Given the growing demand and massive amounts needed, inspectors from China’s Bureau of Import and Export Food Safety have been sent to Thailand to conduct random but careful inspections at more processing factories and their findings will be announced soon, which could lead to more companies being approved to ship their poultry there.
Thai firms are doubly fortunate in that Thailand and Chile are the only countries on whose goods China collects no import duties, and Thailand is at an advantage again in terms of geographical proximity.
In the first seven months of 2019, Thailand exported 540,000 tonnes of poultry overseas, a 9.8-per-cent increase over the same period last year.
China alone imported 33,500 tonnes of chicken and by-products from Thailand in those seven months, a 712-per-cent jump, becoming the Kingdom’s third-biggest export market for poultry after the European Union and Japan.
Kukrit forecast that chicken exports will exceed the expected 900,000 tonnes over the full year.

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