A presenter noshes on a CP Food’s new Japanese pork sausage brand, CP-Yonekyu, at Siam Paragon yesterday.

Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc (CPF) has felt a slight drop in sales of its processed chicken products in Phichit and Nakhon Phanom provinces, at the heart of the latest bird-flu outbreak. But it says its sales in the rest of Thailand remain healthy.

President and chief executive Adirek Sripratak said yesterday CPF holds 25 per cent to 30 per cent of the processed chicken market in the two provinces. He declined to reveal by how much sales had fallen.

However, he said CPF's sales of processed chicken products this year would be healthy and the company considers the outbreak a short-term problem.

First, he said, people had learned how to avoid the deadly disease by consuming only processed chicken. Second, his company has been actively advising consumers to eat only chicken that has been properly cooked, and third, the government is able to control the bird flu and prevent it spreading.

Many well-known restaurant chains, including KFC and Chester's Grill, are still buying processed chicken from CPF and the company's international customers are still ordering its products, Adirek said. Sales from processed chicken account for 20 per cent of its sales.

Adirek estimated that overall, the Thailand market would handle 300 billion tonnes of processed chicken this year - 50,000 tonnes below expectation. This is because of bird flu, as well as collaboration between processed-chicken manufacturers and the Livestock Development Department to hold manufacturing volume down in an effort to boost the price of raw chickens.

This year CPF is aiming for sales of Bt130 billion, up from last year's Bt110 billion. Seventy per cent of this will come from domestic sales, 20 per cent from exports and the rest from the company's investments in India, Malaysia and Vietnam.

Adirek believes consumer demand will improve in the second half of the year.

Meanwhile, a joint venture between CPF and a Japanese partner launched a new product yesterday - CP-Yonekyu Japanese sausage, made from pork.

The product comes from a new Bt530-million plant in Chachoengsao province, in which CPF holds an 80-per-cent interest and the Japanese partner 20 per cent.

The plant's production capacity is between 30,000 tonnes and 50,000 tonnes per year. Initially, it will export part of its production of Japanese sausage to Japan.

In the future, it will process other pork products for domestic and international markets.

On a related matter, CPF and The Mall Group are jointly presenting "CP Foods Pavilion" at Siam Paragon shopping complex until Monday. The event will move to The Mall department store's Bang Kae branch from August 24 to August 30.

It features 200 products from the CP group.

Nitida Asawanipont

The Nation