Thailand's poultry exports increased and feed demand increased

Introduction: Kinabalu, Sept 5: a leading feed processing plant in Thailand said on Wednesday that the EU's growing appetite for Thai poultry meat is likely to increase Thai poultry exports by 20% this year Bontham aramsiriwat, purchasing manager of Lee feed processing plant public limited in Thailand, said poultry orders from Europe are now starting to exceed the normal supply for three months because many European countries have cut their consumption of red meat for fear of BSE and FMD "They [European customers] are also willing to pay a high premium," he told Reuters at the time of the adjournment of the Southeast Asian soybean buyers conference Our frozen chicken exports are sure to grow at least 20 percent this year " Thailand exported about 320000 tons of frozen chicken and processed chicken in 2000, with the main markets being Europe and Japan The European Union accounts for 35% of Thailand's overseas poultry sales, while Japan accounts for 50% to 60% "Many European buyers are keen to place forward orders four to five months from now," says bootham Sometimes it's hard to meet the sudden increase in demand " He said the Japanese market is growing too, but not as fast as Europe's "In Japan, our poultry sales face fierce competition from the United States and Brazil Our sales growth in Japan is not as big as that in the EU " Strong overseas demand for poultry meat prompted Thai feed mills to raise their 2001 forecast for commercial feed production to 10 million tons, compared with the previous estimate of 9.7 million tons Thailand produced 9.6 million tons of commercial feed last year "Feed processing plants are trying to increase production, which will drive us to import more feed materials," bootham said * feed processing plants are optimistic The American Soybean Association (ASA) has predicted that Thailand's soybean meal import will slightly increase this year, to 1.12 million tons, compared with 1.1 million tons in 2000, and the soybean import will increase from 850000 tons in 2000 to 900000 tons Thailand's feed mills are more optimistic "At present, we expect that we may import 1.3 million tons of soybean meal and 1.3 million tons of soybean in 2001," said bootham According to Thai feed processing plants, local poultry demand is not as strong as overseas demand and is expected to grow by only 4 to 5 percentage points in 2001 But a trade official said, "the good news is that strong overseas sales will far offset the sluggish growth of domestic demand." According to bootham, Thai feed mills currently prefer Argentine soybean meal to American or Indian soybean meal "If we take price and value into consideration, Argentine soybean meal is more competitive than other soybean meal from other places," he said We are also looking at Brazilian soybean meal, but the price in Brazil is not exciting for Thai buyers The market share of Argentine soybean meal in Thailand will be greatly increased " When the CNF price of Argentine soybean meal is less than $200 per ton, while that of American soybean meal is as high as $220, and that of Indian soybean meal is also as high as $205 to $210 per ton, Thailand began to increase the purchase of Argentine soybean meal Thailand's feed processing plant said that small-scale buyers have begun negotiations to purchase several ships of Indian soybean meal, which will be made from new soybeans in India in November and December India's new year of soybeans is expected to be available in October "We will definitely buy some Indian soybean meal to meet the demand growth," says bootham If the demand for goods is more urgent, the possibility of purchasing Indian soybean meal is the greatest, because India has a geographical advantage compared with the United States and South America " From November to March, most of its Southeast Asian buyers will turn to Indian soybean meal to purchase soybean meal from 10000 to 12000 tonnage cargo ships.