Cambodia moves to bar Thai chicken

Cambodia yesterday barred imports of chicken products from Thailand after authorities raided chicken slaughterhouses in Nakhon Ratchasima for selling decomposed chicken, Xinhua news agency reported.

"The Ministry of Commerce instructs all levels of authorities along the border between Cambodia and Thailand to prevent all imports of chicken products from Thailand even though the products have phyto-sanitary certificates in order to protect our people's health," Cham Prasidh, Cambodia's minister of commerce, wrote in a directive.

The move came after Thai officials raided chicken slaughterhouses in Nakhon Ratchasima province on Monday and seized about eight tonnes of decomposed chicken.

The slaughterhouses had soaked dead chickens in a strong-smelling formalin solution before processing them as food products for human consumption.

Wachirawit Kritrittisak, deputy chief of Nakhon Ratchasima police, said police had already pressed at least 10 charges against the operators of four of the 11 slaughterhouses.

The suspects allegedly said that they typically supplied chicken carcasses to fish and crocodile farms. They told police they had bought them from middlemen.

The investigating team is gathering evidence against the operators of the other slaughterhouses, according to Pol Col Wachirawit.

Meanwhile, Nakhon Ratchasima Governor Raphee Phongbupphakit yesterday said a committee has been set up to look into claims of negligence after learning the slaughterhouses had allegedly sold to local food processors meat from chickens that had arrived at their facilities already dead.

The probe is expected to be completed in three days, Mr Raphee said.

The panel yesterday invited Pak Chong livestock chief Wibul Rattanapornwong, police chief Col Pakawat Thamde and two senior officers from Pak Chong and Klang Dong police stations to testify.

Earlier, the governor ordered a transfer of the provincial livestock chief, Suksawat Thongnoi, to an inactive post pending the probe into his conduct in relation to slaughterhouse operations in the district.