Charoen Pokphand Group (CP), Thailand’s largest agribusiness conglomerate, said last week it aimed to double sales in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam (CLMV) over the next five years to tap demand in fast-growing economies.
Gross domestic product of the CLMV countries is expected to grow about 10 percent over the next few years, much higher than the single-digit growth at home, Boonkiat Cheewatragoongit, senior vice president for CP’s corporate strategy, told reporters.
CP, controlled by billionaire Dhanin Chearavanont, is among major Thai companies which are aggressively investing overseas ahead of the formation of Southeast Asia’s single economy in 2015.
“The ASEAN single market will offer a bigger market of 600 million people, higher than Thailand’s more than 60 million,” Boonkiat said adding CP aimed to double its chicken production capacity in Myanmar to 10,000 tonnes a month.
CP’s 2014 sales in Myanmar are expected to reach 10 billion baht ($308.2 million), up 10 percent from a year earlier, he said.
In Cambodia, CP planned to invest 700 million baht this year to build a new feedmeal plant and expand capacity of its chicken and pork farms and sales are expected to reach 10 billion baht, said Wittaya Kreangkriwit, senior vice president at CP Cambodia Co Ltd.
The group also plans to invest 200 million baht to expand feed business in Laos, Wittaya said.
Apart from the CLMV, the Phillippines is among outstanding markets due to the large number of population, he said adding CP had so far invested 8 billion baht to build a feedmeal factory in the country.
Unlisted CP Group has branched out from seed into feed, farms, grain trading, foods and to retail, real estate, auto and telecommunications.
It has also expanded into Indonesia, India, China and Turkey and major subsidiaries include Charoen Pokphand Food PCL, retailer CP All Pcl and telecoms group. Reuters
