Frozen cooked Thai chicken:
Thailand's quality standards beat out China in Japan

By Jon Fernquest

The largest chicken plant in Asia (1.25 billion baht) opened in Lop Buri, Thailand last week. The first fruits of the new trade deal between Thailand and Japan (Read more Bangkok Post articles on Thai-Japan trade):

"Ajinomoto Betagro is a joint venture between Ajinomoto Frozen Food Co, Japan's leading food manufacturer, and Betagro Group, Thailand's largest integrated agriculture company. The Lop Buri plant uses the expertise of both partners to produce a range of chicken products for the Japanese market including deep-fried, roasted and charcoal-grilled chicken. It will use chicken meat from Betagro's factory and all of the output is aimed for export to Japan."

The Thai firm Betagro is slowing but surely developing a larger market share in Thailand's chicken export industry, but it only accounts for 16% now:

"With the new facility, Betagro estimates its total chicken meat exports will rise from 4,000 tonnes per month to 5,000 tonnes or at least 50,000 tonnes a year, accounting for 16% of the country's total exports of 310,000 tonnes this year."

Demand for high-quality frozen cooked meat products sold in restaurants and convenience stores is increasing in Japan. Thailand is well-placed to capture this market because it is not suffering from the food safety management problems that China is currently facing.

Ajinomoto almost has as many production plants in Thailand as it does in China: China (4 plants), Thailand (3 plants) and United States (1 plant). This is the second time Ajinomoto has invested in Thailand's food industry. It invested in the pork production many years ago. (Source: Bangkok Post, 24-11-07, temp-link)

Vocabulary:

a plant - a factory
fruits - benefits from doing something
joint venture - when two companies run a business together
integrated - combined (closely linked and coordinated into one whole)
expertise - special knowledge about how to do something
deep-fried - dipped in boiling oil (like KFC chicken)
slowing but surely - a positive way to say "slow" but with great future promise
account for - provide x% of the whole
facility - factory, equipment, machines,...
convenience stores - small stores close to homes and businesses (like 7-11)
well-placed to - have capabilities needed to
capture this market - get most of the customers who want to buy this sort of thing
food safety management - making sure there are not dangerous chemicals in the food you sell

Posted by Jon Fernquest at 03:55 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)