JTBF Mission to Thailand 2010 (2/01-2/04)

Visit to Thai National Shippers' Council (TNSC)

reported by Riichi Ishii (Chief of Food Development Committee, JTBF)

It was the third time that JTBF mission members visited and had a meeting with TNSC. TNSC has 2,700 member companies from various sectors and the new chairman was appointed this year. On the side of JTBF, Mr. Kitayama (chairman) and several other members attended the meeting for the first time. This time, TNSC proposed to focus on an agenda "Progress on Food Safety Development", to be followed by open discussions.

Mr. Paiboon Ponsuwanna, TNSC Chairman, gave a welcoming speech and thanked the delegates for visiting TNSC for the third time. He then talked about economic crisis of the last year which the government came out with stimulus plans for SMEs. After that they faced other severe problems such as Mab Ta Phut and the appreciation of Thai Baht. The Bank of Thailand has just come up with an outward investment support plan. He also informed the JTBF delegates of the Thai government’s policy on encouraging Thai SMEs to invest more in ASEAN but the Thai government provides no concrete supporting measures. He, therefore, hoped that the JTBF delegates would offer some suggestions to TNSC on how Japanese government support Japanese SMEs to invest abroad.

Mr.Teisuke Kitayama, JTBF Chairman, thanked TNSC for receiving the delegates for the third time. He stated that the last two years were very difficult for Japanese business but the economy has bottomed out in March 2009 owing to several stimulus plans. As for Japanese SMEs during the 80’s, they faced problems of strong Yen after the Plaza Accord. Japanese SMEs and large corporations made a lot of efforts to tackle the pressure. However, he thinks that now it is more difficult as Japan enters into aging society and also faces with the appreciation of Yen. As a result, most corporations see ASEAN as domestic market and Thailand is one of the most important partners.

Mrs. Runothai Mahaddhananond, TNSC Executive Director, reported TNSC cooperation projects with Japan as following;

1. “Thai Food Safety Management Seminar”
   The Thai Food Safety Seminar was organized by the collaboration among the Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, the Fisheries Department, Kasetsart University, and TNSC. The purpose of the seminar was to enhance the food safety standard of Thailand to meet with Japanese requirements. The seminar, which was organized from January 20th to 22nd 2009, was supported by JETRO and the National Food Institute. There were altogether 41 participants. The seminar covered the following topics,
     Global standards for food quality and safety
     Post-harvest technology for seafood
     Traceability for seafood industry
     Supplier Quality Expectation (SQE)
     GMP training text for new employees, and Japanese Labeling Law
2. Logistics Qualification System Program (LQSP)
   TNSC has received the kind and continual support from JETRO in organizing the 2nd Logistics Qualification System Program (LQSP) which was held from October 2009 to February 2010. The tests were divided into three main parts; the individual tests, the written report and the oral examination. There were 28 attendees in total, and 23 passed 60% of the three tests and would be eligible for participating in the Presentation of Certificate Ceremony which will be held on February 10th 2010 at the Emerald Hotel.
3. In concluding the report, Mrs. Runothai asked for cooperation from JTBF in publicizing TNSC’s activities to both public and business sectors in Thailand and Japan.
4. After that, she further presented the "Export Development of Thai SMEs" to the delegates as requested by JTBF.

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Open Discussions

Mr. Kitayama, JTBF Chairman, talked with Bank of Thailand and found that the percentage of SME loans is around 4-5% only of the total loan. He asked TNSC how the small businesses in Thailand found financing solutions from SME Bank or other banks.

Mr. Paiboon responded that the ex-Prime Minister Thaksin announced many stimulating policies at that time (note: SME Bank is one of them). However, there were no concrete actions. Last year Thai SMEs were encouraged by the government to invest in domestic industry. Unfortunately, there were the Dubai crisis and the soaring of oil price. Many big corporations had to close down which caused a great impact to the SMEs. Thai SMEs, nonetheless, think that Japan is the biggest market as the volume of export from Thailand to Japan is still increasing.

Mr. Kikkawa explained to the meeting that Japan imported a lot of vegetables, fruits, and food from China. He once participated in a seminar organized by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fishery and Forest in Japan. He noticed that Thai and Chinese participants in that seminar were quite different. While Chinese attendees were rather active and aggressive in asking questions, Thai participants were gentle and not very active whenever there were discussions or questions. He suggested that Thai people should become more aggressive in exporting food to Japan. He further informed the meeting that currently the Chinese government has suspended the investigation of the contamination of Chinese dumplings. This caused disappointment to the Japanese society and affected their trust in the Chinese food industry even more.

Mr. Paiboon responded that Japan is one of Thailand’s biggest markets. He informed the meeting that this morning he participated in a meeting with the National Food Institute of Thailand which also focused on food safety. He found that the amount of the shrimps export from Thailand to Japan has increased significantly which is a good sign for Thailand. On the other hand, TNSC realizes that it is necessary to inform Thai government of unsafe products from China. Thailand still needs to learn a lot from Japanese experiences in food safety so that Thailand can continue to export quality food products to Japan towards the future.

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Postscript

In the evening of Feb. 2, we were invited to the dinner. Messrs. K. Kikkawa, H. Motomura and R. Ishii attended from JTBF. From TNSC, in addition to all attendees of the afternoon meeting, Surapon Foods CEO (ex-chairman and current advisory of TNSC) attended. We exchanged frank discussions over financial support of SME, baht appreciation, Map Ta Phut and so on. I would say the discussions were more open-minded and meaningful for all of us to deepen friendly relationship. I hope JTBF continues to be an important partner of TNSC.