Bangkok--13 Mar--Thai Union Frozen Products PCL
Thai Union Feedmill Co., Ltd. (TFM), Thailand's leading processor and exporter of shrimp and fish feeds and a subsidiary under the umbrella of Thai Union Frozen Products PCL. (TUF), has entered into a joint venture with High Health Aquaculture Incorporated (HHA), the U.S.-based shrimp breed developer. The joint venture, an additional subsidiary with investment worth over Bt400 million, or USD11 million, is named "High Health (Thailand) Co., Ltd. (HHT)" and commercially engaged in research and development of hi-quality shrimp breeds, postlarvae and nauplii as well as distribution to shrimp farmers. The joint venture effort helps broaden the group's business infrastructure related to manufacturing and export of processed fishery products, particularly shrimp, right from breed selection, farming, processing to distribution channels in an
integrated manner.
Mr. Rittirong Boonmechote, TFM and HHT President, disclosed "At present, there is high market demand in shrimp product lines all over the world. This can be seen from promising growth potentials in processed shrimp manufacturing and export relying on local farmed shrimp yield. As such, market demand in high-quality postlarvae and nauplii are consequently on the rise. Although the business has positive growth potentials, food safety measures and food product standards have become more rigid than before too. As we can see in those shrimp export quality requirements where shrimp exports are subject to undergo traceability system, which must be able to trace back any purchased finished product throughout manufacturing process; from hatchery, feed mill, exporter, importer and to consumer. And because of this, we see high degree of importance of development technology for high-quality shrimp breeds, postlarvae and nauplii. Also, this can be served as foundation of our group's continued manufacturing lines. We place much weight on manufacturing process quality to ensure highest quality and safety products. This will be done right from using standard quality raw materials. Due to these factors, we decided to expand our investment into a new subsidiary, High Health (Thailand). What we expect to gain from this investment are to respond to our business growth, along with providing support to Thai shrimp farmers in terms of their becoming more integrated for "Contract Farming" implementation.
HHT annual production capacity will be at 3,600 million postlarvae and nauplii and can be increased to 5,000 million by June 2007 to meet growing demand among domestic shrimp farmers."
TFM and HHT President also added "The management team that we select for the new subsidiary will focus on technological development and good service given to shrimp farmers, which will be beneficial to shrimp farming facilities in Thailand, food service providers, and other related business partners. The management team is led by Dr.
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