BETAGRO GAINS FROM ITS BQM PROGRAMME

       The Betagro Group, the country's leading integrated agribusiness enterprise, is set to benefit from Bt100 million in annual cost reductions, thanks to the Betagro Quality Management quality-control programme launched a year ago.
       The group has also received 100-per-cent repeat orders from its trading partners. Prices for its export products are quoted 30-per-cent higher than the market price, and stocks at port destinations have dropped significantly, thank to increasing demand.
       BQM, which enables complete quality testing, is part of the group's efforts to become one of the top manufacturers of safe consumer foods through its full compliance with all international standards and ability for its products to be tracked 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
       This unique standard of quality control, also called BQM 24/7, will be showcased this weekend when the group attends the world's most important food and beverage fair - Anuga, in Cologne, Germany.
       Chief operations officer Vasit Taepaisitphongse said the group would extend the BQM method to its local trading partners, so that they can improve their own operations.
       "Our BQM standard will assure customers about our food safety and help us achieve our three-year target of 15-per-cent annual growth on average," Vasit said.
       He said the group formulated its unique quality-control system in the face of rising quality requirements from importers, particularly supercentre giants like Tesco.
       "Each customer has its own specific standards, so we wanted our standards to surpass anyone's requirements," he said, adding that the group's cost reduction would also help its bottom line.
       Executive vice president Suthep Tirapipattanakul agreed BQM had helped the company reduce costs, including by reducing product rejects from 1 per cent to 0.1 per cent.
       BQM has also encouraged the group to focus more on premium products, which now accounts for 75 per cent of its production. Plans are afoot to produce only premium products in the near future.
       The programme has been successfully applied in its chicken farm and all processing lines. Next up will be its swine operations, with full implementation expected by next year.
       Sanon Liawpairoj, commercial director for poultry, said the group's chicken exports reached 33,000 tonnes in the first nine moths of the year, against a full-year target of 46,000 tonnes. Export volume will increase to 55,000 tonnes next year.
       The group exports to the European Union (55 per cent) and Japan (45 per cent).
       Vasit said the group had targeted revenue growth of 10 per cent next year, to Bt55 billion.