Producers are investing billions of Baht in enclosed chicken farms -- thanks to the bird flu outbreak, according to the Board of Investment (BOI) of Thailand.

Traditional open-air poultry farms were being abandoned because birds from protected facilities were fetching higher export prices, said Vibulphan Juntarashote, BOI assistant secretary-general.

The BOI was promoting the enclosed farming system by extending privileges such as exemption of import duties for machinery and the waiving of corporate tax for eight years. Qualification for other BOI-related privileges would depend on the location of the farms.

Vibulphan said to date, the BOI had received applications from 33 such projects involving a total investment of 3.1 billion Baht (about 78 million US dollars). Applications covering another 20 enclosed farm projects, worth 1 billion Baht (about 25 million US dollars), were expected to be lodged next year.

Applicants were individual poultry farmers and corporations who had contract farming deals with conglomerates. The applicants were investing between 30-60 million Baht (about 0.75-1.5 million US dollars) in these ventures. Apart from the BOI, she said the Government Savings Bank and the SMEs Bank were also eager to offer support.

The enclosed farming system enables strict hygiene standards to be imposed at every step of production to conform with the import requirements of major markets.

Siripong Arunratana, deputy managing director of Thailand's largest chicken producer CPF, said the company had received consistent orders for cooked chicken meat due for delivery in 2006.

He estimated that Thailand should be able to export 400,000 tons of cooked chicken meat worth 50 billion Baht (about 1.25 billion US dollars) next year, representing a nearly 40 percent increase on this year's 280,000 tons.

Source: Xinhua