AGRIBUSINESS
Betagro chairman Chaiwat Taepaisitphongse (third from left) joins Lamphun governor Direk Ghonghleeb (fourth from left) at the opening of the new feed plant yesterday.
Betagro Group, one of Thailand's leading agro-industrial companies, yesterday opened a 370-million-baht animal-feed manufacturing plant in the North as part of its plan to expand production nationwide. The newly built feed plant in Lamphun province, with a capacity to produce a maximum of 18,000 tonnes of livestock feed per month, is one of the biggest production facilities in the upper northern region of Thailand, according to Betagro Group's chief executive Vanus Taepaisitphongse.
With the additional production, the group's total feed production is 1.9 million tonnes per year, a level that could meet customers' demand and accommodate the group's strong growth in the agro-industrial business. Betagro estimates its sales, mainly from the poultry, animal-feed and swine businesses to generate over 40 billion baht in revenue by year-end.
According to the group, total demand for animal feed nationwide this year is expected at 11.3 million tonnes. Of this, 4.4 million tonnes are for swine, four million tonnes for chickens, 1.5 million tonnes for broiler-layer chickens and 1.4 million tonnes for cattle and others.
The recent reduction in production costs from lower use of raw materials in the feed industry such as maize, fishmeal and soybean meal would improve the feed business by about 7% to 12 million tonnes next year, according to Narongchai Srisantisaeng, senior vice-president for regional and feed business.
He said that the new animal-feed factory, which is operated by Betagro Northern Agro Industry Co, is one of the group's eight feed factories located in strategic areas across the country.
The facility is able to supply about 14,000 tonnes of chicken, swine and cattle feed per month to farmers in the northern region, Mr Narongchai said.
He said the expansion was a milestone in the development of Betagro's feed business to meet the growing demand in the region and enable the company to improve its logistic operations for animal feed _ from processing plants to farmers across the region.
This improvement would help increase Betagro's market share in the commercial feed market to 37% in 2009, up from 23% estimated this year from the total market demand of 30,000 tonnes a month in the upper northern region.
In the overall market of commercial feed, Betagro has gained a 20% market share this year, representing about 65,000 tonnes per month.
''Our feed business will continue to concentrate on the commercial feed business next year with a series of new product launches, especially in the land and aquatic animal segments,'' he said.
He added that the strong feed market had driven the company's new plan to build a new facility in the western or southern region in the coming months.
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