Technical trends of livestock production in Asia

What’s next in Asian livestock production? A group of experts will share new findings, trends and future standards at the Pig, Poultry & Dairy Focus Asia 2010 - - Asia’s largest technical livestock conference. This will take place on March 1-3, 2010 in Bangkok, Thailand.


N.C.C. Exhibition Organizer Co., and Positive Action Publications, the co-organizer of ‘Pig, Poultry & Dairy Focus Asia 2010’, which will take place on March 1-3, 2010 at the Imperial Queen’s Park Hotel in Bangkok, Thailand, are confident that Asia’s largest international, technical livestock conference will prove to be a superb education forum for Asian professionals to learn trends in Asia’s livestock production industry.

“Although Asia’s livestock production has been negatively impacted by the global economic crisis, the setback is not as deep as Europe’s or America’s. The USDA is forecasting broiler meat production to recover in 2009. Sales prices may decline, but margins have been somewhat protected by declines in freight rates and grain prices which have offset losses. From a technical perspective, animal health and food safety issues will be top priorities as a result of growing concerns over food-borne illnesses and food security,” said Mr. Teerayuth Leelakajornkij, Senior Project Manager, N.C.C. Exhibition Organizer Co., Ltd.

“Pig, Poultry & Dairy Focus Asia 2010 is a perfect education forum for industry professionals to find answers and solutions in regard to technical trends for livestock production in Asia. Some 90 international speakers from Europe, the Americas and Asia will share their vision and knowledge and technical perspectives that will have definite influence on the Asian livestock industry,” said Mr. Leelakajornkij.

The conference will focus on coming trends in pig, poultry and dairy production. There will be a look into the entire supply chain: from superior genetics, to nutrition, to veterinary care, to housing, and to handling. “In addition to gaining technical knowledge, networking opportunities are available at a reception and gala dinner. There, participants can discuss issues with their peers and pick the brains of industry experts,” he said.

Registration for the Pig, Poultry & Dairy Focus Asia 2010 is now open. Any registrants who register and pay before January 15, 2010, will merit an ‘Early Bird’ discount special offer.

More information about special rates, booking details and other concerns can be sourced from www.positiveaction.co.uk or www.nccexhibition.com

Nutrilite pads Amway's sales

       Amway (Thailand) Co, the country's largest direct sales company, projects its Nutrilite food supplement business will grow at least 15% to 4.8 billion baht in sales this year as the health trend is still popular among Thais.
       Marketing director Ratana Channara said the fact that more Thais are taking care of their health will drive strong growth in the local food supplement market. Nutrilite sales were solid even during the economic slowdown.
       In the past, people spent on vitamins,calcium tablets, and nutritional or diet drinks. Now, Amway notes, they consume more collagen and dietary supplements that claim to enhance their appearance.
       Ms Ratana said the overall food supplement market would grow around 10%this year from 22.8 billion baht last year.Nutrilite will account for 14% of the market and be the second-largest player.The worldwide dietary supplement market is currently worth US$65 billion or 2.3 trillion baht and gaining every year.
       "We see high potential in the food supplement business, both globally and locally. Since it launched in Thailand,Nutrilite's sales have grown steadily the past 10 years," said Ms Ratana.
       Besides the health trend,300,000 Amway business owners will drive the item.
       In 2010, Amway expects Nutrilite revenue growth of at least 7%.
       "We've made a conservative projection for next year because its revenue base is quite big. However, we will revise the figure again in the middle of the year,"she said.
       Amway also plans to launch two new food supplements for the elderly next year. Ms Ratana said Thais are living longer because of medical advancements,and the lifespan of a Thai woman is more than 70 years, up from 60 in the past.
       Since Nutrilite is marking its 75th global anniversary this year, Thai Amway is celebrating the event with a 100-million-baht TV commercial campaign.It is also staging the Nutrilite Super Tour on Oct 20, where it expects to attract at least 15,000 visitors.
       Direct sales business should improve in the last quarter in line with an improving economy, and many players are doing aggressive marketing. During the first nine months, the overall market grew 7-10% to 45 billion baht, said Kittiwat Ritteerawee, Amway's general manager for business relations and marketing.

Cerebos (Thailand) embarks on bird's-nest education campaign

       Cerebos (Thailand), manufacturer of bird's-nest soup and essence of chicken, has launched a Bt50-million marketing campaign to educate consumers about the nutritional value of its products.
       The campaign is aimed at countering misconceptions about the quality of birds' nests that are harvested from natural caves and those from "cavelike" structures.
       CEO Lackana Leelayouthayotin yesterday said local consumers did not understand the difference between ingredients from natural caves and ingredients from structures built specifically to house bird's nests. This is harming the image of manufacturers of premium-grade bird's-nest products, including Cerebos.
       "We must educate the public about soup made from nests found in natural caves, which provide the best quality," she said.
       The campaign features Brand's new formula, which uses 30-per-cent more bird's-nest content. Cerebos (Thailand) has also raised its price for the soup 5 per cent.
       The company is also using "love ambassadors" to promote the new formula's theme of "Love and Care".
       Lackana said Cerebos (Thailand) had not been much affected from the misperceptions, as sales revenue grew 10 per cent in the first nine months of the year. The overall bird's-nest market is expected to grow in double digits this year, from last year's value of Bt2.5 billion.
       Cerebos has targeted sales growth of only 10 per cent this year, less than the 20 per cent seen in recent years, because of the economic slowdown. But Lackana said health supplements in general were still experiencing growth despite the economic slowdown.
       "The downturn has led people to be more selective, and so bird's-nest and chicken soup products are still growing to an extent," she said.
       Lackana said a complete economic recovery was expected next year, which meant the company could then look forward to a return to 20-per-cent sales growth.

CHICKEN-ESSENCE MAKER, MAJOR CINEPLEX JOIN HANDS TO TARGET MOVIE-GOERS

       Scotch Industrial (Thailand) has teamed up with Major Cineplex Group in its first marketing partnership to spend almost Bt100 million on promoting its bottled chicken essence and birds' nest to movie goers.
       "We and Major Cineplex share the same target customers, who enjoy entertaining lifestyles," marketing director Sompoch Chavalvechakul said yesterday.
       Under the budget, which accounts for about 30 per cent of Scotch's overall media budget, various lifestyle marketing activities will be launched aggressively this and next year, including the screening of Scotch commercial at cinemas and joint seasonal marketing campaigns.
       Scotch will also open sales outlets in Major Cineplex's entertainment centres.
       All Scotch products, including collagen, will be available at over 70 locations, selling snacks and beverages, in Major's network.
       Major Cineplex operators 372 screens in 46 locations both in Bangkok and upcountry.
       Sompoch said this was the first time for the company to kick off such lifestyle marketing activities by targeting movie-goers.
       The company will launch a health-food product, which may be chicken essence or collagen, to cater especially to movie-goers, who are younger consumers and first jobbers, by the middle of next year.
       The new product is now under research and development.
       "It is in line with the company's strategy to launch new, innovative products into the market. The market for health foods is quite dynamic as consumers are demanding products with new innovative ingredients for their good health," Sompoch said.
       Scotch chicken essence occupies 20 per cent of the Bt3-billion bottled chicken essence market, while Scotch birds' nest has 50 per cent of the Bt2-billion bottled birds' nest market.
       The markets for bottled chicken essence and birds' nest are expected to grow by 14 per cent and 7 per cent respectively this year.
       Nielsen Media Research recently reported an overall increase in media spending last month, from Bt7.5 billion to Bt7.7 billion.
       Many of the mainstream media-such as radio, newspapers, magazines, outdoor and in-store media-showed a significant drop in ad spending.
       But cinema ads, together with some other media, such as television advertising, which accounts for about 60 per cent of overall media spending, transit media and Internet ads, recorded year on year growth in August.
       Cinema ads alone rose 61 per cent to Bt475 million.
       Sompoch said the company's performance in the first eight months of this year was quite satisfactory.
       "Our chicken essence posted significant growth of 26 per cent in the first eight months of this year. Our birds' nest product also enjoyed growth of 15 per cent over the same period," he said.
       Scotch's overall sales were up by 17-18 per cent over the same period last year.
       "The health-food industry has not been impacted seriously by the current economic and political problems. Our target customers are those medium-to upper-income earners and their purchasing power has not been affected by the economic recession.
       "We have seen an increasing trend of health-conscious consumers in the market," Sompoch said.
       Scotch expected to grow its overall sales by 20 per cent this year to Bt1.6 billion-Bt1.7 billion, he added.

Brand's plans to triple its capacity

       Cerebos (Thailand) Limited, the producer of Brand's food supplements, is investing 2.45 billion baht to triple its production capacity due to confidence in the Thai economic outlook.
       Lackana Leelayouthayotin, the company's CEO, said the outlay was a major investment for the 14-year veteran of the Thai market.
       "We are confident in the Thai economy, which is expected to recover by the end of this year," she said.
       Of the total,730 million baht is for expanding the capacity of Brand's essence of chicken at the Laem Chabang plant in Chon Buri and 500 million baht will go to the production of caps. Another 1.22 billion baht will be used for constructing two facilities on a 38-rai plot in Pinthong Industrial Estate in Si Racha,Chon Buri - one each for the bird's nest products and Vita food supplements.
       The first two projects have already been finished. Work on the two new facilities is under way and the will be opened early next year.
       After the new factories start operation in January, the capacity of all categories under Cerebos will rise threefold.
       The production capacity of Brand's chicken essence will rise to 960,000 bottles per day, for bird's nest products it will reach 300,000 bottles, and for Vita food supplements the capacity will reach 600,000. The additional production capacity will serve both domestic and export markets.
       Over 50% of the bird's nest products will be exported to China. Cerebos has four factories: in Thailand, Taiwan, China and Malaysia.
       Ms Lackana said that with the domestic economy expected to improve next year, the company expected demand for chicken essence in the Thai market next year to grow at a double-digit rate,similar to the past few years.
       The Thai chicken essence market is estimated to be worth 3 billion baht with 10% growth this year.
       Sales of Cerebos in the first seven months of this year grew at a doubledigit rate because of new products and marketing activities.
       Cerebos controls more than 90% of Thailand's chicken essence market and has a 60% share of the 2.5-billion-baht bird's nest market.

Health Impact more focused on marketing events

       Health Impact, a supplementaryfood manufacturer, has set aside 30 per cent of its estimated sales of Bt360 million this year for marketฌing, with an increased focus on events and nonmass media.
       Marketing director Kannika Ekkasak yesterday said the market value for supplementary food for health purposes in the first half of the year had increased by 10 per cent from the same period last year, while supplementary food for beauty purposes had grown at a slower rate due to the tough economic climate.
       "Health Impact, which is a small manufacturer of supplementary foods, has seen room for growth in the health segment this year," she said.
       The company yesterday launched an innovative supplementary calciฌumbased food product under the Solucal brand to serve healthconฌscious customers.
       This follows the success of the company's CalG, aimed at enrichฌing joints and launched a few years ago.
       Solucal is different from products already on the market, as it contains collagen in order to absorb the calฌcium more easily, said Kannika.
       Health Impact targets Bt20 milฌlion in revenue from Solucal this year, acquiring a 5percent share of the calciumbased supplementaryfood market, which is valued at Bt400 million.
       Besides supplementary foods, the company makes healthcare products such as mattresses and cosmetics.
       It generated revenue of Bt300 million last year, of which 40 per cent was contributed by suppleฌmentary foods, 30 per cent by cosฌmetics and the remaining 30 per cent by other healthcare products and the export market. The compaฌny expects revenue to grow by 20 per cent this year.
       "Revenue in the first half of the year increased roughly 20 per cent from the same period last year. The support factor is that this year we have expanded our distribution channels to modern trade stores.
       Last year, we sold our supplemenฌtary products through drugstores and hospitals only.
       "We can say that we have had no impact from the economic slowฌdown and are very confident that our revenue this year will grow as we expect," Kannika said.

Bird's nest frenzy grips Malaysian town

       Thousands of bird "motels" have opened across Malaysia to lure the swiftlets whose nests are harvested to make bird's nest soup, a costly delicacy in Chinese cuisine.
       But as the business booms and flocks of swiftlets - who make the nests out of their saliva - descend on towns and villages, the noisy, messy practice has triggered a wave of protests.
       In the heart of the coastal town of Klang, southwest of the capital Kuala Lumpur, the owner of the Goldcourse Hotel has converted part of the multistorey building into a swiftlet "motel".
       To entice the swiftlets to build their nests in their concrete home - and not their natural cave habitat - from sunup to sun-down a soundtrack of shrill bird noises including mating calls is blasted from speakers.
       Nearby, other entrepreneurs have opened competing ventures by turning four-storey shophouses into bird havens,and the cacophony and shower of bird droppings is alienating those living and working nearby.
       "The sound is so loud and irritating,and the bird droppings can be harmful to our health," said local resident Abdul Hamid Abdullah as he watched the swif-tlets dart in and out of the buildings.
       "These birds build their nests in caves.That is where they should be," the 46-year-old told AFP.
       Malaysia's swiftlet industry began in the 1980s but gained momentum after the 1997 Asian financial crisis when entrepreneurs converted the interiors of abandoned properties into bird motels.
       Fans of the gelatinous soup, which is popular in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, say it can stave off ageing, boost sex drive, prevent lung disease and enhance the complexion.
       A kilogram (2.2 pounds) of the small,cup-shaped nests can fetch 4,000 ringgit ($1,130), and the combination of big profits and a lack of legislation has seen countless swiftlet "farms" established illegally in populated areas.
       Kenneth Khoo, from the Small and Medium Industries Association in northern Penang, told AFP that the global trade in raw bird's nests was estimated at 20 billion ringgit ($5.7 billion).
       "Swiftlet farming in Malaysia is a sunrise industry. Demand far exceeds supply as more wealthy Chinese emerge," he said, adding that bird's nest soup remains a status-booster on business menus in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan.
       Khoo said Indonesia "controls up to 70% of the business in the region, sourcing its bird's nests from both caves and farms, while the other two main producers are Thailand and Malaysia."
       He estimated that there are at least 35,000 swiftlet farms in Malaysia, only about 4,500 with legal permits, in a business worth 800 million to 1.2 billion ringgit.
       But as the industry expands along the east and west coasts of peninsular Malaysia, opposition to the swiftlet farms is growing louder and environmentalists are demanding a complete ban.
       There are also allegations of cruelty as some "farmers" reputedly destroy chicks and fertilised eggs in order to harvest the nests at times when prices are high.
       Conservation group Friends of the Earth has condemned the trade and called on the government to close down the proliferating swiftlet farms.
       "This rather impetuous booming industry has led to complaints from the public due to the nuisance, health hazards and the number of bird hotels coming up," said Mohamad Idris, president of the group's Malaysian branch.
       "Collectors may not wait long enough for the young to fledge, often throwing the chicks onto the ground or leaving them to die after taking the nests," he said.
       "In view of the problems faced by many in the farming of swiftlets and from the welfare point of view of the birds, we would like to call for a ban on all farming of swiftlets."