Bangkok Produce Merchandising Public Co.,Ltd.

This morning I met Dr. Wanchai Pholprasertku with the Department of Livestock Development and he escorted me to Saraburi Province to Bangkok Produce Merchandising Public Co., Ltd. They are a division of the CP Group which is a huge multi-national company that is involved in many industries including telecommunications, real estate, motorcycle manufacturing, medical supplies and retail but its origins are in agriculture and food production. They have operations in Thailand, China, Indonesia, India and Turkey and export around the world. This facility is a chicken processing operation with both a fresh chicken facility and a further processed plant. They produce every possible chicken product that any country could want. Because of Avian Influenza they can only export cooked product. Although they have had no cases of AI in their fully enclosed, climate controlled poultry houses, there have been cases in Thailand and so there is a ban on the export of fresh poultry. They showed me a video about the on-farm production side of the business and it appears that they use all of the same advanced technology that is used in the American poultry industry. They produce their own feed; have their own breeder hens, hatchery, broiler farms and processing facilities. I was given a tour of their further processing facilities and slaughter facility. They are both just as sanitary as, or more sanitary than, the Tyson plant I toured in Oklahoma. Although at the Tyson plant we walked through the production floor and at this plant they have a glassed in walkway where you look into the plant, so you don’t get quite as close up of an experience. In addition to meeting every possible food safety and good manufacturing standard they also meet Halal standards so they can export to Muslim countries. As far as I can tell this means they stun using electric shock making sure the chickens aren’t stunned to death and they have a Muslim do the slaughtering. Their products are completely traceable back to the farm. As with all processing facilities they don’t allow pictures so the only one I have to offer is this one of the many ready-to-eat products they produce.