Thailand certainly has its own way of doing things, and its own special hospitality.
And as far as I could tell, there is a general feeling of optimism among the region’s poultry producers and a desire to improve an industry that is already on a firmly upward trend - across both meat and egg production.
This was not only evidenced by strong attendance at the WATT Global Media seminar Global Poultry Trends – Effect on the South East Asian Market, but also by the host of new exhibitors and the near impossibility, at times, of entering certain stands – frustrating for me but good news for the exhibitors and indicative of the desire to learn and invest in improving chicken and egg production.
And when I could eventually gain the attention of those that I wanted to speak to, it was a similar story time and time again.
While nobody is forecasting the growth that was previously expected, Asia is forecast to be the driver where many companies are concerned, and the region is expected to outperform other poultry and egg markets for several years ahead.
Consensus view across poultry, egg producers
While not in the mainstream poultry supply sector, one young and thrusting European company told me that, once it had established itself in its home market, it had ignored the rest of Europe and went straight to registering its products in Asia and looking for distributors. Already working in a handful of Asian countries, it came to VIV Asia in the hope of finding more as it believes the opportunities are simply too good to miss.
A similar story was told by a Taiwanese broiler producer. In a little over two decades, it has grown from being a startup to supplying a variety of poultry meat and day-old chicks not just at home but in a number of other Asian countries including some that are just about as far away from Taiwan as they can possibly be.
And what do these two companies expect in common? More of the same!
Of course, the region is not without its problems and chicken meat is yet to play a major role in the diets of many of the region’s inhabitants, but these factors are not seen as stumbling blocks.
