Next year looks promising for frozen chicken traders after Singapore became the latest country to allow imports of frozen poultry from Thailand after a nine-year ban.
Surasak Riangkrul, director-general of the Foreign Trade Department, said Singapore in July lifted its ban on Thai frozen chicken that was imposed following the 2004 bird flu outbreak.
Thai shipments to Singapore are expected to fetch 8 billion baht a year now, he said.
"Although Singapore is not a major market for Thai poultry, the decision to lift the ban by Singapore, which has very high sanitation standards, is a good sign and will attract import interest from other countries," said Mr Surasak.
Singapore's imports will be limited to frozen chicken from farms that raise poultry in a closed or compartment system certified by the Livestock Development Department.
Only two food manufacturers - Charoen Pokphand Foods Plc, the SET-listed food flagship of Charoen Pokphand Group, and Saha Farms - have been given the green light.
More Thai companies are expected to be allowed to ship frozen poultry to Singapore in the future, said Mr Surasak.
He said given Thailand's ability to control bird flu in the farm sector, several markets including Hong Kong, Bahrain, Russia, South Africa, the UAE and the EU have lifted their ban on Thai frozen chicken products.
As a result, Thai shipments of frozen poultry rose to 116,178 tonnes last year from 51,270 tonnes in 2011.
Last year Thailand shipped a combined 560,652 tonnes of poultry and poultry products worth 69.7 billion baht.
For the first nine months of this year, shipments fell by 0.25% year-on-year by volume to 402,766 tonnes, but export value crept up 0.59% to 51.1 billion baht.
Key frozen chicken export markets were the EU, which made up 43% of total shipments for the period, and Laos at 34%.
Despite this optimism, Mr Surasak warned that Thai products will see stiffer price competition next year, particularly in key markets such as the UAE, Hong Kong, Singapore and Malaysia.
He said Thai producers should focus more on processed goods and accelerate development of value-added goods and product diversity to raise the competitiveness of Thai poultry products.