Saha Farms, one of the largest local chicken producers and exporters, yesterday announced it has invested nearly Bt10 billion in new farms and chicken factories in Lop Buri and Phetchabun provinces.
Company chairman Panya Chotitawan said the expansion doubles its production capacity at both sites. The two factories for cooked chicken currently have production capacities of 4,000 tonnes each per month.
The new factories will start production next month.
The factory in Lop Buri produces processed chicken, including chicken sausage and meatballs.
"Our ambition is to export 75,000 tonnes of cooked chicken and 25,000 tonnes of fresh chicken meat this year. We want to increase our exports of cooked chicken meat up to 100,000 tonnes next year," Panya said.
"We expect to achieve Bt40 billion in total sales this year, of which 50 per cent comes from exports. We have reached nearly 50 per cent of our fullyear target for the first six months of this year," he said.
Panya said that the company had already exported 34,000 tonnes of cooked chicken and another 10,000 tonnes of fresh chicken meat in the first half of this year.
About 55 per cent of the chicken was exported to Europe and another 40 per cent to Japan, and 5 per cent to other markets.
Panya said that chicken export from Thailand dropped dramatically to only 100,000 tonnes in 2004 as a result of the birdflu outbreak in the country, down from 400,000 tonnes a year previously.
But chicken exports then increased gradually to about 360,000 tonnes last year.
"Thailand has become the largest supplier of mainly breast products into the EU, where its market share is twice as big as its largest competitor, Brazil. That country has very low rawmaterial costs but cannot compete with Thailand in terms of skilled labour," he added.
Panya urged the government to improve water resources, especially irrigation systems, as urgent measures to assist farmers and increase productivity of their farms and agricultural products.
"What happened negatively to the country at this moment is that some people are above the law and do not respect the regulations. Politicians are major obstacles to the country's development," Panya said.