Thailand's Poultry Situation

Thailand's poultry industry continues to recover from Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) for the second consecutive year since it hit the sector in January of 2004. As of February 2, 2006 OIE received notice that Thailand has had no new outbreaks of HPAI since November 17, 2005. The industry has responded well by making management and biosafety improvements at both the production and processing levels, in order to cope with demand increases and protect commercial poultry production against future AI incidents.

As a result, Thailand's broiler meat production is estimated to grow 18% in 2006 over the 2005 level in an anticipation of the availability of unused production capacity among poultry processors, a lack of disease threats to the commercial poultry industry, and the anticipation of continued growth in both domestic consumption and exports of cooked poultry.

Domestic consumption is forecast to grow 7%, due to increased consumer confidence in the safety of cooked chicken meat and the relatively competitive prices of chicken meat against other meats. The high stocks of chicken meat that troubled several packers in late 2004 and early 2005 have been absorbed and no longer pose a problem in 2006.

Broiler meat exports in 2006 are forecast to increase 30% over 2005 levels, due to the higher market value of Thai cooked products over its competitors (China and Brazil) and its ability to increase cooked product supplies quickly. It is expected Thailand will continue to export cooked products as import prohibitions continue on Thai uncooked chicken.

Thailand's major buyers will continue to be the EU, Japan, South Korea, Singapore, and Hong Kong. Of the 265,450 tons of cooked meat exported in 2005, Japan was the largest importer accounting for 54% of the total volume with the EU (41%) and other countries (5%) following right behind. Duck meat exports also grew about 70% to 5,600 tons in the first ten months of 2005 valued around $26.7 million. Source: USDA FAS/OIE/news wires

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Source: USDA's Agricultural Marketing Service - 14th February 2006