The reason Thailand is keeping mum about H5N1??

Thai chicken exports set to rise as bird flu fears ease

Monday • July 17, 2006

Thailand has said its chicken exports were expected to rise by almost 30 percent this year as concerns ease among key export markets over the deadly bird flu virus in the kingdom.

The agriculture ministry said exports of cooked chicken were targeted at 350,000 tonnes this year, a jump from 276,000 tonnes shipped in 2005, due mainly to increased orders from Japan and the European Union.

Thailand has already shipped 140,000 tonnes of chicken abroad during January to June. Japan and the EU are the two biggest buyers of Thai chicken.

"Together with rising consumption in Japan and the EU, consumers there are more confident in the quality of chicken exported from Thailand," Yukol Limlamthong, director of the livestock development department, told AFP.

"While maintaining its ban on raw chicken exports from Thailand until December 2007, the EU has ordered 10 percent more cooked chicken from us this year compared to 2005," he said.

Raw poultry products from Thailand, one of the world's biggest chicken exporters, have been banned internationally since the first cases of the deadly H5N1 virus were detected here in January 2004.

Cooked chicken does not carry the virus and is not affected by the bans.

Thailand has suffered 22 cases of bird flu in humans, including 14 fatalities, most recently in December.

Ministry officials have tried to reassure Thailand's trading partners of the quality of Thai chicken.

"Almost all the bird flu cases were detected in chicken raised in backyards, not in the commercial sector where sanitation standards are quite high," said Pornchai Chamanpood, director of the National Institute of Animal Health.

"Even in areas where the flu was widespread, we didn't find any contamination in chicken factories there."

Thailand announced early this month it hopes to be completely free of the deadly bird flu virus in three years, after eight months so far without the outbreak. — AFP