Executive vice president Sommai Tachasirinugune yesterday said export sales of CP-brand shrimp wonton had doubled year on year in the first eight months.
He attributed the sudden demand to the economic crisis in the US.
"US consumers have become cautious in their spending, so they now prefer to buy frozen foods or cook in their homes," he said.
Wonton is a Chinese dumpling with a thin pastry wrapper, in this case filled with shrimp.
About 60 per cent of CPF's exported shrimp wontons are sold in the US, through leading supermarket chains Costco and Safeway.
CEO Adirek Sripratak said that as the financial crisis in the US intensified and the contaminated-milk scandal hit China, CPF's sales of shrimp wonton grew threefold. Other countries like Japan have also increased their shrimp-wonton orders 40 per cent year on year.
The company has decided to increase its production capacity from 100,000 bowls a day to 300,000.
At present, CPF produces shrimp wonton at its plant in Samut Sakhon province. It will enlarge its Rayong plant to contribute 150,000 bowls of shrimp wonton a day to the production effort by 2010, Sommai said.
The company will also import a machine to soft-boil wonton in the next two weeks. At present, the process is done manually, so the production line will become fully automatic, increasing output from the Samut Sakhon plant to 150,000 bowls per day by the end of the year.
"We expect export sales of shrimp wonton to reach Bt1 billion this year, and that should increase 50 per cent a year for the next three years," he said. "After that, sales of shrimp wonton may increase 20 per cent a year."
Sommai said CPF also planned to export other products processed from shrimp, including shrimp burgers, Chinese vermicelli with wontons and fried shrimp, to its existing markets and new destinations next year.
CPF's shrimp burger has already been presold to leading fast-food chains in Thailand. The company expects to export 1,000 tonnes of shrimp burgers next year.
Assistant vice president Kritsada Mapaisarnsin said the company was currently exporting shrimp wonton to 17 countries. It plans soon to break into new markets, including Russia, Canada, England and France.
The Nation, October 17, 2008