Thai producers worried about EU chicken quota

The EU is Thailand’s second largest import market after Japan.

While the European Commission has not yet confirmed its allocation for Thailand specifically (this is expected to happen at a meeting this month) last week it settled on a total chicken import quota for salted chicken (264,245 tonnes) and cooked chicken (230,453 tonnes).

Salted chicken will be taxed at a rate of 15.4%, and cooked chicken at 10.9%. Any volume over the quota will be taxed at 1,300 euros and 1,024 euros per tonne respectively.

The EU reached an agreement with Brazil, a major chicken supplier, on a quota of 170,807 tonnes for salted chicken and 73,000 tonnes for cooked meat.

After Brazil’s allocation, Thailand will be left with a maximum quota of around 150,000 tonnes for cooked chicken.

“The is not a large volume, considering the export volume of 120,000 tonnes this year and 140,000 tonnes expected next year,” said Anan Sirimongkolkasem, the president of the Thai Broiler Processing Exporters Association.

Given the current rate of growth of cooked chicken exports of 30-40% per year, the quota allocation from the EU should be 200,000 tonnes per year, he said.

Mr Anan said that about 60 companies in Thailand had total capacity to produce 500,000 tonnes of cooked chicken a year.