First lot of fresh Thai chicken sent to SKorea

BANGKOK, December 14 (TNA) - Thailand has resumed exporting fresh chicken to South Korea in 12 years, the first batch of which, worth 1.73 million baht, is expected to arrive at a South Korean port by the end of this month. Agriculture and Cooperatives Minister General Chatchai Sarikalya presided over an event to send the first 15,240 kilogramme-batch of fresh Thai chicken to South Korea at Laem Chabang Seaport in the eastern Chon Buri Province on Wednesday. General Chatchai noted that his ministry had constantly negotiated for resuming fresh Thai chicken exports to South Korea, resulting in both South Korea's Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (MAFRA) and Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS) to have approved and certified 12 Thai firms of frozen chicken and products to re-export the fresh Thai poultry to South Korea since November 9, 2016. General Chatchai said a total of five containers of Thai fresh chicken from the 12 certified producing firms were set to be shipped to South Korea by the end of this month, with their combined weight of 106,644 kilogrammes and total value of over 12 million baht. According to the minister, the certified poultry firms plan to continually export their frozen chicken to South Korea and his ministry has targeted that a total of 40,000 tonnes of fresh Thai chicken should be exported to South Korea next year, totally worth 3.6 billion baht. South Korea had suspended imports of Thai fresh chicken since 2004 due to avian flu outbreaks at that time. (TNA)