Thai pig and chicken farmers have raised concerns that a ban on imports of pork and chicken meat from the US could be lifted under pressure from the US.
The farmers fear they could be hurt by the dumping of cheap imported meat, and possible diseases and contaminated residues in the meat could harm the reputation of Thai pork and chicken exports, according to the associations.
Surachai Sutthitham, president of the Thai Swine Raisers Association, said the groups submitted a letter to government agencies related to pork and chicken imports for the second time in a year yesterday, demanding the government keep the US pork and chicken import ban in place.
The letter was also sent to key state agencies overseeing livestock imports, including the Livestock Development Department, the Trade Negotiations Department and Foreign Trade Department.
"We want the government to continue the ban on US pork imports since it is widely known that the beta agonist drug, ractopamine, is widely used in the US, leaving the pork contaminated,'' said Mr Surachai.
Ractopamine increases protein synthesis, making the animal more muscular. This reduces the fat content of the meat and increases the profit per animal. However, rectopamine has some negative effects on human health and because of safety concerns, about 160 nations ban or restrict the use of this drug during pig production, including countries in the European Union, Russia, China, and Thailand.
Mr Surachai said Thailand is under growing pressure from US President Donald Trump, who wants countries to buy more pork products from the US, especially pig parts which US consumers generally avoid eating, such as heads, giblets, legs and offal. The pressure has eased a little with the postponement of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha's visit to the US originally scheduled for late this month, when Thai pig farmers feared the issue of lifting the ban could be on the table.
Mr Surachai said the US is the world's major exporter of animal feedstuff, including soybean and soymeal, leaving the country with lower production costs compared to Thailand which needs to import around 1-2 million tonnes a year of feedstuff from the US and Latin America. He said Thailand has around 15 million live pigs, which is sufficient for local demand with a surplus of about 5% processed and exported elsewhere.
The Thai Broiler Processing Exporters Association said the US chicken ban should be maintained to help keep open the market for Thai processed chickens and cooked chicken in the European Union (EU).
Prasert Anuchiracheeva, secretary-general of the association, said the EU and Japan, which ban ractopamine, are major markets for Thai chicken meat products. Thailand's total chicken exports are worth around US$2.5 billion baht a year, of which 30-40% goes to the EU and Japan.