Status of frozen turkey import ban?

[Guderian]

I was hoping that we might be able to buy a frozen turkey for Easter but it looks like the import ban is still on. Does anybody know when the ban will be lifted and turkeys appear in the shops again? As far as I understood it, the ban only affected imports from the US, so why haven't the likes of Friendship, Tops and Makro started sourcing frozen turkeys from other countries, like the UK, where there's been no bird flu outbreak so there's no ban (I hope)?

Edited March 24, 2016 by Guderian

[lopburi3]

The UK production is a tiny fraction of US - no way they can make up much of a difference and expect they are selling what they have fine locally or to higher bidders than us supermarket expats.

[JESSVANPELT]

Its a very good question since Germany, The U.K., Italy and France combined produce about Half of what comes from the States, you would think Big C would have them as there are french owned.

Looks like you might have to have an Easter Ham or Leg of lamb

[NanLaew]

Its a very good question since Germany, The U.K., Italy and France combined produce about Half of what comes from the States, you would think Big C would have them as there are french owned.

Looks like you might have to have an Easter Ham or Leg of lamb

Big C are French owned? Never were and the French partnerships will be all over by the end of this month.

Regardless, since when has any Thai-owned and operated supermarket catered for every foreign holiday beyond Christmas and to a lesser extent Thanksgiving?

What's Easter in Thailand? It's called Songkran.

[JESSVANPELT]

Its a very good question since Germany, The U.K., Italy and France combined produce about Half of what comes from the States, you would think Big C would have them as there are french owned.

Looks like you might have to have an Easter Ham or Leg of lamb

Big C are French owned? Never were and the French partnerships will be all over by the end of this month.

Regardless, since when has any Thai-owned and operated supermarket catered for every foreign holiday beyond Christmas and to a lesser extent Thanksgiving?

What's Easter in Thailand? It's called Songkran.

INCORRECT! The French group called Casino is the largest shareholder and has been for years., just check the Big c website.

[NanLaew]

Its a very good question since Germany, The U.K., Italy and France combined produce about Half of what comes from the States, you would think Big C would have them as there are french owned.

Looks like you might have to have an Easter Ham or Leg of lamb

Big C are French owned? Never were and the French partnerships will be all over by the end of this month.

Regardless, since when has any Thai-owned and operated supermarket catered for every foreign holiday beyond Christmas and to a lesser extent Thanksgiving?

What's Easter in Thailand? It's called Songkran.

INCORRECT! The French group called Casino is the largest shareholder and has been for years., just check the Big c website.

Their website is incorrect. Do some real research and stop believing the first thing you read.

[Satcommlee]

Careffour was french owned.. not Big C who bought them out

[Guderian]

Its a very good question since Germany, The U.K., Italy and France combined produce about Half of what comes from the States, you would think Big C would have them as there are french owned.

Looks like you might have to have an Easter Ham or Leg of lamb

Big C are French owned? Never were and the French partnerships will be all over by the end of this month.

Regardless, since when has any Thai-owned and operated supermarket catered for every foreign holiday beyond Christmas and to a lesser extent Thanksgiving?

What's Easter in Thailand? It's called Songkran.

Maybe you didn't notice, but many shops (particularly Makro) stocked frozen turkey all year round before the ban was introduced. My question was asking when the ban will be lifted, prompted by a desire to have a roast turkey dinner this weekend. I wasn't asking, and nor did I expect, Thai supermarkets to cater for individual foreign holidays, other than Christmas anyway.

[Guderian]

The UK production is a tiny fraction of US - no way they can make up much of a difference and expect they are selling what they have fine locally or to higher bidders than us supermarket expats.

Sure, the US is the largest single exporter of turkey meat, but its exports are still a lot smaller than the EU's (e.g. 294K tonnes for the US vs. 536K tonnes for the EU in 2011). Anyway, the total imports to Thailand would represent only a small fraction of just about any big western country's turkey production. One single British company, Bernard Matthews, could easily fill the gap left by Butterball and Norbest here. I'm sure that France and Germany both have similar operations that could easily fill the gap in our dinde and truthahn supplies.

[Guderian]

Could we possibly shelve the Big C ownership issue for another time and get back to the original topic, when the import ban will be lifted?

Edited March 25, 2016 by Guderian

[BruceMangosteen]

Could we possibly shelve the Big C ownership issue for another time and get back to the original topic, when the import ban will be lifted?

The Thai's have much bigger fish to fry than turkey import bans. As we have always said, while common sense would dictate review of such a ban, since we don't care about it why give it any consideration? This is the Thai way. Thai's don't eat turkey or care about it. Turn off cable TV and you will see what I mean. You cut out TV and all heck would break loose, but turkey imports being banned? Nobody cares.

[JESSVANPELT]

Its a very good question since Germany, The U.K., Italy and France combined produce about Half of what comes from the States, you would think Big C would have them as there are french owned.

Looks like you might have to have an Easter Ham or Leg of lamb

Big C are French owned? Never were and the French partnerships will be all over by the end of this month.

Regardless, since when has any Thai-owned and operated supermarket catered for every foreign holiday beyond Christmas and to a lesser extent Thanksgiving?

What's Easter in Thailand? It's called Songkran.

INCORRECT! The French group called Casino is the largest shareholder and has been for years., just check the Big c website.

Their website is incorrect. Do some real research and stop believing the first thing you read.

The by all means please inform where you got your information........why would Big C have its own history section wrong? I won't expect a reply.

[bobbin]

INCORRECT! The French group called Casino is the largest shareholder and has been for years., just check the Big c website.

Their website is incorrect. Do some real research and stop believing the first thing you read.

The by all means please inform where you got your information........why would Big C have its own history section wrong? I won't expect a reply.

Casino sold out about 3 months ago Jess..

[JESSVANPELT]

INCORRECT! The French group called Casino is the largest shareholder and has been for years., just check the Big c website.

Their website is incorrect. Do some real research and stop believing the first thing you read.

The by all means please inform where you got your information........why would Big C have its own history section wrong? I won't expect a reply.

Casino sold out about 3 months ago Jess..

Actually The deal is not complete untiil March 31st, but Thanks thou...As I said to begin with "having French Ownership should of allowed them to get Turkeys if they wanted to do so. My Statements have been accurate. Big C's largest shareholder has been the Casino group, Until March 31st.

[NanLaew]

Their website is incorrect. Do some real research and stop believing the first thing you read.

The by all means please inform where you got your information........why would Big C have its own history section wrong? I won't expect a reply.

Casino sold out about 3 months ago Jess..

Actually The deal is not complete untiil March 31st, but Thanks thou...As I said to begin with "having French Ownership should of allowed them to get Turkeys if they wanted to do so. My Statements have been accurate. Big C's largest shareholder has been the Casino group, Until March 31st.

I am happy that you found the credible source of correct information that I referred to which confirms your totally incorrect and ongoing assertion about Big C's foreign ownership.

Now, off you go and do research on why being the largest shareholder does not confer company ownership status.

Then you can bone up on Thai corporate law that forbids majority foreign ownership of a Thai registered and owned company. It's the same law that they hit the Thai subsidiary of the Norwegian owned telecoms giant DTAC with fairly recently.

Back on topic... since the Thai ministry didn't make any formal announcement of the import ban with their actions only coming to light in the run up to last Thanksgiving, it is fairly safe to assume that the same ministry will not make a big announcement if or when the ban is lifted. Suddenly there will be turkeys in the freezers at Makro, the age old debate on how old they are will be reignited and misstatements about Makro's foreign ownership will be made.

[Guderian]

Back on topic... since the Thai ministry didn't make any formal announcement of the import ban with their actions only coming to light in the run up to last Thanksgiving, it is fairly safe to assume that the same ministry will not make a big announcement if or when the ban is lifted. Suddenly there will be turkeys in the freezers at Makro, the age old debate on how old they are will be reignited and misstatements about Makro's foreign ownership will be made.

Sounds like what might happen indeed.

I also just noticed that they seem to have stopped blocking the Daily Mail website. That was out of the blue too.

[NanLaew]

Actually The deal is not complete untiil March 31st, but Thanks thou...As I said to begin with "having French Ownership should of allowed them to get Turkeys if they wanted to do so. My Statements have been accurate. Big C's largest shareholder has been the Casino group, Until March 31st.

Initially you referenced the Big C website and stated erroneously that Big C is/was foreign owned. It is not and never has been.

Latterly you seem to have read the same Wiki about Big C that I did. It's the same one that totally discounts your 'foreign owned' assertion.

While you are 100% correct with regard to periods of a majority and controlling foreign shareholding, Big C is and has always been Thai owned.

... By virtue of controlling more than half of the voting interests in the company, the majority shareholder has a very significant influence in the business operations and strategic direction of the company. ...

* Read more here

I seriously doubt that importing turkeys from France featured very highly in Casino's decisions about Big C's "business operations and strategic direction."

[Rimmer]

A couple of off topic posts have been removed, I did a quick check and the topic is still frozen turkey

AND

More off topic bickering in a private argument have been removed