ไทย
Mr. Anucha Dechanithisawas, President of Thai Frozen Food Association, mentioned the future of Frozen Food in Thailand with Prachachat News,
Frozen Food and Processes Food Industry in Thailand has play important role in driving Thailand’s economy and creating income to the country since the standard quality has been known through international nations. Even the overall export volume of frozen food in 2023 has been dropped around 12% or 94,000 million baht, but the economic situation in 2024 seems to have opportunity for frozen food to emerge back from Covid-19 situation.
Frozen Food Exporting in 2023,
Mr. Anucha said that the flow of exporting frozen food in Thailand during the first quarter has expanded before the significant drop at the end of the year due to the shrinking economic situation, which makes importers around the world reduce new orders and stock more goods to avoid risks. In conclusion, the shrinking economic situation impacts export business in Thailand to shrinking by 12%, similar to other nations and other business fields that struggle with the shrinking economic situation until the first quarter of 2024.
Winner & Loser
The frozen food industry does not count Tuna as one of the kinds due to the fact that the main exporting product from Thailand is Shrimp, with major market segments of the United States of America, Japan, and China, which have a high volume of imported products from Thailand. However, due to the economic shrinking in 2023, its impact Thai Exporting Industry to shrinking and expected to recover in 2024.
At the same time, other exporting product like frozen fish and frozen crab stick has dropped down 10% from last year, similar to exporting squid that has been shrunk 15% due to Thai Fishing Industry has been impacted from IUU policy and standard that effect the number of local fishing production.
Right now, Thailand produces shrimps annually around 2.2-2.5 hundred-thousand tons, which makes Thailand the fifth biggest Shrimp producer in the world. However, 10 years ago, Thailand was the largest shrimp producer in the world, with around 6 hundred thousand tons a year. In addition, a significant drop occurs since the spread of ESM among shrimp farms in 2013 has reduced the ammoung of shrimp production in Thailand down to 2 hundred-thousand tons a year until now. Therefore, we should organise the authority to help research and develop species of shrimp for Thai Shrimp Farmers.
Researching and developing shrimp species is on slow process with the hope of creating new species of shrimp that are resistant to disease with a high survival rate. Together with help from other authorities to research and develop in this project.
Solving Issues of Fishing Industry and Labour,
To solving problem in FIshing Industry and IUU policy, Thai Fishing Association has submit letters for permission to revise the Act of Legislation, which is now in the process of evaluating without any conclusion from the government yet.
Moreover, numerous issues of fishing labour in fishing industry including illegal labour without proper visa and Child labour has been solved effectively during the past 4 years. Therefore, International Labour Organization or ILO has announce new policy and standard to control international illegal labour because most labours in fishing industry are from Thailand’s neighbor country like Laos and Cambodia.
By solving numerous issues of labour in fishing industry and increasing Good Labour Practice or GLP, it helps Thailand Fishing Export Industry gain back the trust from international association and international business partners
FTA between Thai – EU is in hurry to complete
In order to support exporters in Thailand, the Fishing Industry Association of Thailand is asking the government to make an agreement about an FTA between Thai – EU. By completing the agreement, all marine products will be executed to the fishing tax immediately due to the fact that all the exported marine products from Thailand has been pay import tax for around 20-30% depending on type of product because Thailand does not have an FTA agreement with the EU.
Therefore, the government has been expected among Thai frozen food exporters to complete the FTA agreement between the EU that can support Thai Frozen Food exporting since 20-30% import tax directly impact the reduction amount of frozen food exporting to other countries.
Read more at: https://www.prachachat.net/economy/news