Speaking at the NFI's annual roundtable titled "How the Thai Food Industry Will Survive and Sustain", Yuthasak Supasorn, deputy executive director of the institute, said another factor supporting the growth of overseas sales was the economic recovery of the Kingdom's major markets, including Japan and Europe.

In addition, he said, as a result of disasters in some the country's major trading competitors - China, Taiwan and Vietnam - Thai agricultural products such as rice, tapioca, and vegetable had been exported at good prices.

Yuthasak, however, said there were risk factors that exporters should take into consideration, such as fluctuations in oil prices and the domestic political turmoil.

He added that the costs of international trade, especially transportation, had risen due to high interest rates and rising oil prices.

To handle these risk factors, Yuthasak said the government would set up a

traceability system to control the quality of agricultural products from farmers,

logistics operators and processed-food product manufacturers, through to

retailers.

Yuthasak added that the main strategy was to emphasise the safety of the manufacturing process and good after-sales service, rather than competing solely on the basis of cheaper prices.

The NFI predicts the volume of food exports in 2007 will reach 25.82 million tonnes, up 9.8 per cent from this year's target of 23.52 million tonnes.

The value of food exports is expected to be Bt607.06 billion next year - a 10.3-per-cent rise over the Bt550.49 billion targeted for this year. For the first half of the year, Thai food exports were worth Bt259 billion, an increase of 5.9 per cent over the same period last year.

Thailand's top five food export markets in the first half were Japan (Bt45.743 billion), the United States (Bt44.984 billion), Europe (Bt37.393 billion), Malaysia (Bt9.874 billion) and Australia (Bt6.817 billion).

Chalida Ekvitthayavechnukul

The Nation