Saudi Arabia has given permission to 11 Thai chicken factories to export chilled chicken, frozen chicken and processed chicken to the Saudi market, starting from March 13.
Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce Minister, Jurin Laksanawisit said he has assigned Commerce Permanent Secretary and DITP Director-General to discuss with the private sector and the Central Islamic Council of Thailand to prepare chicken exports, under the conditions that it should have the least impact on the domestic market in terms of quantity and price, and that it must be of benefit to exporters.
In 2021, Thailand exported 912,900 tonnes of chilled, frozen and processed chicken worth 102 billion baht (US$3.056 billion). Saudi Arabia currently imports 590,000 tonnes of chicken annually; 70% of this is from Brazil, with 30% from Ukraine and France.
The commerce minister aims to boost exports of other Thai products to Saudi Arabia in the future.