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2008-1212 - The Nation - New Betagro ventures in Cambodia, laos

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2008/12/12/business/business_30090803.php

Business

New Betagro ventures in Cambodia, laos

Published on December 12, 2008

Betagro Group plans to set up pig-breeding farms in Cambodia and Laos next year, each worth Bt160 million. It will also establish an animal-feed plant costing Bt300 million in Cambodia in the next two years.

The company is also considering investing around Bt1 billion for a new animal-feed plant in Phetchaburi province within three years if the global economy picks up, said Narongchai Srisantisaeng, senior vice president for regional and feed business.

He said that the company's feed business has expanded into Cambodia in the past three years, with distribution handled by local agents. The fast growth led the group to decide to set up a company named Betagro (Cambodia) to cover sales and marketing for a new brand call Bio, while existing brands will remain with local agents.

Betagro exports 2,000 tonnes a month of animal feed products to the Cambodia market. As that figure is set to grow to 4,000 tonnes, Betagro will build a plant in the country with production capacity of 6,000 tonnes.

"The factory could be seen within two years under the budget of Bt300 million.

However, we will start a 2,000-pig breeding farm in Cambodia next year before beginning the factory construction," Narongchai said.

He said the company would start a breeding farm, also with 2,000 pigs, in Laos at the same time. But it has no plans to build a plant because Laos has a smaller population than Cambodia and lower consumption.

Betagro at present exports around 600 tonnes of animal feed a month and 200 tonnes a month of aquarium food to Laos. It has registered a company there under the name Betagro (Laos) to oversee sales and marketing.

Narongchai has been appointed managing director for both companies. He said if the global economy crisis were restored quickly, the investment plan on new factory in Phetchaburi would go ahead in the next three years.

The new plant has a budget of Bt1 billion with production capacity of 30,000 tonnes a month. Betagro intends to use the plant to serve demand in the west and the upper south of the country.

Betagro Group currently operates eight animal-feed production plants nationwide. The ratio of production for internal use to commercial production is 60:40.

As part of the company's more aggressive marketing strategy for next year, Narongchai said the company had allocated a budget of Bt100 million to launch three new commercial feed products for pets, both livestock and aquatic animals. These include Okane for fish, Primo for dogs, and Rambo for fighting cocks.

The group believes the pet-feed market has high potential for growth.

The new products will serve the high end of the market and will appear on shelves next month. First-year annual sales are expected to top Bt140 million.

Of this, sales of Primo dog feed products are projected to reach Bt60 million, followed by Okane fish feed products at Bt50 million, and Rambo fighting cock feed products at Bt30 million.

Narongchai said Betagro had a 20-per-cent share in Thailand's commercial animal-feed market, representing about 65,000 tonnes per month. This year the sales of commercial feed products is expected to post Bt11 billion, up by 10 per cent from last year.

"As a result of significant improvement in our production capacity, especially from a new animal-feed manufacturing facility in Lamphun province, coupled with active investment and marketing activities despite the slowing economy, we expect to be able to achieve sales revenue of Bt12 billion in 2009, an increase of 10 per cent from this year," he said.
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December 12, 2008 05:29 pm (Thai local time)
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______________
Dr. Justin McDaniel
Dept. of Religious Studies
3046 INTN
University of California, Riverside
Riverside, CA 92521
951-827-4530
justinm at ucr.edu