Thailand's chicken meat exports fell more than 90 per cent during the first ten months of this year as a result of the avian flu pandemic, the state-run Thai News Agency reported on Saturday. Secretary-general of the Office of Agricultural Economics Suthiporn Jeeraphan said exports of frozen chickens during the first ten months had dropped to 26,375 tons, worth 1.7 billion baht (42.5 million dollars), compared with 304,446 tons worth 20.3 billion baht (507.5 million dollars) during the same period in 2003. Thailand suffered two outbreaks of avian influenza in 2004 which devastated the local poultry population and prompted importing countries such as Japan and the E.U. to ban fresh chicken products from Thailand from their markets. Suthiporn warned that failure to control the avian flu situation could lead to the permanent loss of Thailand's export market, said the TNA.
