Thailand’s first egg production facility to receive official certification for cage-free egg production belongs to Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF).
Last month, the Department of Livestock Development awarded this landmark certificate to the company’s Wangsomboon Farm in the central province of Saraburi, reports The Nation of Thailand.
Department officials see the accolade as an important step towards improving quality egg production across Thailand. It also represents a successful model for the wider dissemination of knowledge on this method of egg production.
At the Wangsomboon Farm, hens are kept in environment-controlled houses at no more than nine birds per square meter, according to senior deputy managing director of CPF’s egg business, Somkid Wannalukkhee. As part of the high welfare standards, each birds has 15 cm of roosting space.
With its present 12 houses, the facility has an annual production capacity of 10 million eggs. The firm is planning to raise this to 15 million eggs.
According to Somkid, plans for the higher-welfare egg farm began back in 2018. At the time, the possibilities were explored for adapting European cage-free egg production to Thai conditions.
By September of 2019, cage-free eggs from the farm were launched on the Thai market.
Chicken farms in eastern Taiwan retain operating licenses
Through its Taiwan operation, CP Group has received the go-ahead from the Council of Agriculture for the construction of five chicken farms.
Last week, the council announced its decision that the operating licenses of Charoen Pokphand Enterprise (Taiwan) Co. (CP Taiwan) are still valid in Hualien county.
According to Taiwan News, at stake is the future of five poultry farms with around 375,000 chickens.
Despite the Council of Agriculture’s ruling, the county government has called for a further review, and local residents have vowed to continue their protests until CP Taiwan opts for a different location for the farms.
In June of last year, the firm halted construction of the new buildings in response to local objections.
More on CP Group
Earlier this month, CPF released the financial results for 2020.
Among the key headlines was a more than 40% increase in net profit — despite the challenges of coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic and African swine fever. The group attributed this success to its adoption of innovations and technology such as artificial intelligence.
With annual slaughtering of 685 million head, CPF is the third largest chicken meat producer in Asia, according to WATTPoultry.com’s Top Poultry Companies. With around 22 million hens in table egg production, the same source puts the group at the head of the world egg company rankings.
CP Foods is Thailand’s largest integrator of poultry and pig meat, and one of the world’s biggest agribusiness enterprises.
