Thai chicken processors cooking meat to recover exports
THAILAND - Thailand’s chicken processors say they will soon recover their export sales, badly damaged by the bird flu crisis, by offering their international customers premium, cooked products.Exports of cooked poultry pieces have already increased by 38 per cent since 2004, when the ban on fresh meat encouraged processors to look for new opportunities.
Pornsri Laurujisawat, manager of the Thai broiler processing export association, told AP-Foodtechnology.com that the export of cooked meat is expected to continue rising this year, to a forecast 350,000 tons.
During 2005, the country exported 265,000 tons of cooked chicken, still significantly less than the 543,000 tons of all poultry meat exported in 2003 but a respectable figure that suggests the country will quickly recover its sales.
“When we were hit by bird flu, we needed to look for a solution. Cooked products are premium products so this new marketing strategy will be good for us. Thailand also has the skills needed for cutting and separating the chicken parts and preparing it for convenience products,” Laurujisawat said.
Source: MeatProcess
31 March 2006
1 minute read
