TH | Eng
Production
In 2010, most of major broiler producing countries were able to expand their broiler productions as a result of the recovering of world economy and increasing demand for chicken meat, a cheaper and lower fat content protein food, to replace other types of meat product. Moreover, demand was also increasing favorably in countries that per capita chicken meat consumptions were still low such as Mexico, China, and the Eastern European countries. This increasing demand was the main factor encouraging further growth of broiler production. However, the occasional recurrence of Bird Flu outbreak in some countries and the rising of animal feed prices were still an obstacle to the expansion of broiler production.
In 2010, total world broiler production was approximately 74.406 million tons, an increase of 3.3% from 2009. The United States was still the world’s largest broiler raiser follow by China, Brazil, and the European Union respectively.
The United States produced approximately 16.348 million tons of chicken meat in 2010, an increase of 3.3% from 2009. The chicken meat production in China, the next major producer, increased from 2009 by 3.7% to reach 12.550 million tons in the same period. Brazil, the world’s third largest producer, produced 11.420 million tons of chicken meat which increased from 2009 by 3.6%. Lastly, the EU which was the world fourth largest producer produced approximately 8.920 million tons of chicken meat, an increase of merely 1.8% from the previous year.
As for Thailand, approximately 980 million broilers were raised in 2010 which accounted for about 1.419 million tons of chicken meat. The production was higher than that of 2009 by 2.5%. Part of the increased chicken meat production was to meet the rising demand resulted from growing confidence among consumers on the strict surveillance measures imposed by the government to control the Bird Flu outbreak. Furthermore, since the outbreak did not occur in farms of any integrated broiler firms that produced majority of chicken products in domestic market, most of Thai consumer relaxed their concerns on the dangerous of the deadly Bird Flu. Moreover, some part of the increased production was due to the growth of export demand that still continue, although at a rather low rate.
Domestic Market
Demand for chicken meat product expanded in accordance with the recovering of Thai economy. Despite the continuous rising of oil price that caused inflation rate to increase successively in 2010, its effect on chicken meat consumption was trivial since its price was still at level that most consumers can easily afford and relatively low compared with other type of meat. Furthermore, the regaining of consumer’s confidence on safety of chicken meat after its slump in 2004 also helped boost further domestic market. This continued growing domestic demand has lessened the impact of trade discrimination and fierce competition that Thai broiler business has to face in the world market.
Domestic consumption of chicken meat in 2010 was approximately 1.021 million tons which increased from 2009 by 3.1% while the annual consumption per capita increased continuously from approximately 15.2 kilograms to 15.5 kilograms during the same period.
Market Situation
The expected growth of Thai economy in 2011 will sufficiently support the rise of domestic demand for chicken meat products. Furthermore, since chicken meat has rich protein content while its price is relatively low when compare with other types of meat, the recovering of Thai economy should markedly raise domestic demand for chicken meat products.
Although the export of Thai chicken meat products is forecasted to increase, the real growth of export market depends on various positive and negative factors as follows.
Negative Factors
- Higher cost of energy used in the production of animal feeds and the shortage of some raw materials that has been switched to produce more gasohol and bio-diesel would enhance the cost of broiler production. This higher production cost will lower Thai competitiveness of chicken meat products in world market. Moreover, price of chicken meat that has to rise in accordance with its production cost might slowdown or even reduce demand for chicken meat products.
- Influence of the financial crisis originated in Greece and Ireland will negative affect the economic growth as well as consumer’s purchasing power in the EU which is the major market of Thai products. The economic downturn will adversely affect all Thai exports including the chicken meat products.
- Although the fixed import quota allocated by the EU may benefit Thai cooked chicken meat producers during the first few years, the problem may arise when the import quantity reaches the quota limit. Then, export of Thai cooked chicken meat may not be able to increase further since the out-of-quota tariff is as high as 1,300 Euro per ton. In addition, although the EU allocates import quota of 92,610 tons for Thai salted chicken meat, the import ban on Thai salted chicken meat is still imposed. Even though Thailand and the EU may reach the agreement on the compartmentalization practice so that Thai salted chicken meat may be imported by the EU again, the allocated quota is rather small because it is only about half of the usual amount imported from Thailand in the past.