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Betagro urges pork industry upgrade
Thai pork producer Betagro Group's executive vice president Nopporn
Vayuchote says that the industry standards in pork slaughterhouses must be
upgraded to resolve the current problems of volatile prices and inconsistent
supplies.
Most pigs are butchered, he says, at Thailand's wide-spread 1,400 substandard
municipal abattoirs that lack the proper facilities to store meat to prevent
oversupply.
Although costs to build an export-standard slaughterhouse
are high, he has called on the Thai government to take the matter seriously and
upgrade the standards of the Thai pig industry which now has the reputation
among foreign buyers for 'dubious meat sanitation requirements'.
Success
Pointing to the success of Thailand's chicken
producers who years ago invested in cold storage supply management that has
worked successfully, with rare complaints and disputes over market prices, the
Thai pig industry should do the same, he says, adding that the cost of an
export-standard slaughterhouse is about 300-400 million baht (€6.2-8.3 million
baht), with most of the money going for cold storage facilities.
Betagro,
which has formed joint ventures with Japanese food giants, Sumitomo and
Ajinomoto, producing processed pork and raw meat to sell in Japan, has seen a
minimal effect from the unstable prices, and plans to tap into its export
performance growth by investing 400 million baht (€8.3 million) to open four new
pig farms in Lop Buri and Prachin Buri Provinces and another abattoir in the
North, which would add 24,000 fattening pigs and 4,000 parent pigs to the
current 800,000 and 40,000, it now raises.
Related website:
• Betagro
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