BANGKOK, 17 May 2012 – The National Food Institute has set this year’s food export growth target at 5.1 percent after the figures from the first quarter came out impressively.
National Food Institute (NFI) President Petch Chinabutr said that Thai food export value in the first quarter of 2012 totaled 234.288 billion baht, a 5.3-percent year-on-year increase.
Mr. Petch said that sugar, chicken and poultry, cassava and food seasoning exports have registered an outstanding growth, while the food industry suffered a 1.6-percent contraction in the first quarter of this year due to a slowdown in Thailand’s major markets, including the US and the EU.
For the entire year of 2012, the NFI President believes that total food export value will exceed 1 trillion baht, or a 5.1-percent on-year growth rate, because of high prices that have been driven up by rising costs.
In addition, Mr. Petch said that the food business confidence index in April 2012 stood at 55.0 while entrepreneurs remained concerned about the cost of raw materials, which may hinder future growth.
Moreover, the NFI survey on the readiness of Thai food producers towards the emergence of the ASEAN Economic Community in 2015 found that around 63 percent of medium- and large-sized entrepreneurs are not quite prepared due to worries about language barriers and different business-undertaking approaches.
They are also waiting for the government to provide more information and news on the issue.
