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Thai exporters urged to upgrade seafood products to EU standard
Thailand’s Foreign Trade Department (FTD) is warning exporters to improve
their self-monitoring of standards in producing and processing seafood and
fisheries products to ensure that their quality meets the standard set by
the European Union (EU).
Director-General Apiradi Tantraporn said the Overseas Commercial Office,
reporting from Brussels, said the EU might consider banning imports of
frozen seafood from some countries in the Association of Southeast Asian
Nations (ASEAN) due to concerns over hygienic problems.
She said many seafood and fisheries products such as frozen squid and shrimp
and canned squid, had been examined by the EU since January 1.
It found that some products do not meet the set standard and have been
placed on the European agency’s warning list. Because of this, she said that
Thai exporters should attempt more carefully to produce seafood and fishery
products to meet the standard so that they would not face an import ban or
EU quarantine. (TNA)
Central bank urged not to raise policy interest rate too sharply
The Bank of Thailand (BoT) Monetary Policy Committee should
be wary of raising the policy interest rate by more than 0.5 per cent in the
second half of this year, according to a leading economic forecaster.
Thanawat Palavichai, director of the University of Thai Chamber of Commerce
(UTCC) Economic and Business Forecasting Center, said a survey was conducted on
business conditions for the first half and projecting the outlook for the second
half of this year by seeking the opinions of 400 entrepreneurs from June 25-30.
It found that total sales and profits had dropped by 47 per cent and 69 per
cent, respectively, while costs had increased by 14 per cent. The survey also
forecast that the total sales and profits would plunge by 45 per cent and 58 per
cent respectively in the second half of the year, while costs would rise by 7
per cent for the whole year.
Key factors relating to business performance included the rising fuel prices,
political instability, currency exchange rates, higher prices and production
costs for products, the public’s purchasing power, interest rates, and
confidence among investors and consumers.
The survey showed that slightly over one-third - 35 per cent - of Thailand’s
entrepreneurs believed that the business performance would deteriorate in the
second half of the year while 33 per cent believed it would pick up.
Most expected the farm, food, petroleum and vehicle sectors to improve in the
second half of the year.
Thanawat said what entrepreneurs want the government to address urgently are the
problems of soaring oil prices that adversely affect transport overheads,
political challenges, unstable currency exchange rates, higher interest rates
and general unrest in the country.
The business community wants to see the baht stay at 33 to the US dollar and the
lending rate at 7.5 per cent per annum.
Dr. Thanawat said he personally believes that if the central bank’s monetary
committee sees the need to raise the policy interest rate, they should not
increase it by more than 50 base points.
He also forecast that the country’s economy would grow 4.5 per cent in the
second half of the year and overall was likely to expand by about 5 per cent for
the whole year. (TNA)
Emirates Skycargo to increase capacity and offer more destinations for Thai customers
Emirates SkyCargo, the award-winning freight division of Emirates Airline
has announced that it will launch services to more international gateways
and introduce additional capacity to existing points in 2008 in response to
the growing demand for exports from Thailand.
 Emirates
SkyCargo has increased capacity and launched new service routes out of
Bangkok.
Following the successful launch of services to Cape Town in March, Emirates
SkyCargo will begin services to both Guangzhou in China, and Calcutta in
India on July 1, Los Angeles on September 1, San Francisco on October 26 and
Durban in South Africa on December 1 of this year.
The ongoing global route expansion will open up additional opportunities for
Thai companies and is expected to boost export volumes significantly. The
new routes also afford importers with new avenues for sourcing overseas
goods.
Additionally, Emirates SkyCargo has also increased its capacity on existing
routes in response to the higher export demand. On the daily Bangkok – Dubai
route, operated with a Boeing 777-300 ER aircraft, an additional capacity of
30 tonnes per week has been introduced on the Bangkok-Dubai sector.
Furthermore, from July 1, Emirates SkyCargo will upgrade its operation to
provide daily direct services from Thailand to both Milan and Rome, via
Dubai. This enables more cargo space in the belly-hold to be dedicated for
consignments to either of the two Italian cities and eliminates the need to
share precious cargo space with other destinations.
This capacity expansion is expected to boost exports from Thailand to the
United Arab Emirates and Italy. In 2007 the cargo movement from Thailand to
the United Arab Emirates was 8,860,732 kilograms, registering an impressive
growth of 36 per cent from the 6,496,120 kilograms carried in the previous
year. Meanwhile cargo shipments from Thailand to Italy in 2007 totaled
6,659,191 kilograms, a 6 per cent increase from the previous year, according
to the Bangkok Airport Air Cargo Statistics.
Key products exported from Thailand include electronic and computer parts,
auto parts, fresh foods, fruits and vegetables and garments, while major
products imported to Thailand include spare auto parts, electronic parts,
raw materials, textiles, synthetic stones, personal effects and seafood.
Aniruth Songsatya, Cargo Manager for Thailand & Indochina said: “The new
destinations will provide our customers with a larger international network
to support new opportunities for growing their businesses. Simultaneously,
the expansion in capacity of existing popular routes such as Dubai and Italy
provides our customers in Thailand more cargo-carrying capacity for their
goods.”
“These initiatives also demonstrate our long-term commitment to deliver
competitively-priced, reliable and leading-edge products and services to our
customers in Thailand,” Aniruth added.
Recently, Emirates SkyCargo was voted ‘Best Middle East Cargo Airline’ for
the 20th consecutive year by trade magazine Air Cargo News. (Source:
Spark Communications)
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