Aug. 1--Marking another milestone of its success overseas, the Thai agricultural conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group will make its products available at 7-Eleven stores in Japan this month, securing a foothold in the Japanese market.

The latest move has brought it another step closer to its goal of becoming the "Kitchen of the World", a vision laid down by chairman Dhanin Chearavanont years ago.

Under the business deal concluded recently, ready-to-eat meals and semi-cooked products of Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) such as chicken teriyaki and shrimp with chili sauce will be sold at more than 12,000 outlets of 7-Eleven across Japan.

"The products are being sold under a co-brand with 7-Eleven initially but we'll try to present our own CP brand later on," said Prasit Chalongchaichan, a CPF senior vice-president.

He said that generally Japanese consumers had a preference toward local brands such as Ajinomoto and Nichirei and it could take some time for them to accept a new brand, especially a foreign one.

Apart from targeting an extensive network of convenience stores such as 7- Eleven, CP is eyeing other retailers whose operations do not compete directly with the top convenience-store chain. Smaller retailers including CircleK, or Ministop convenience stores with about 2,000 to 3,000 outlets are being considered.

Exporting semi-cooked food to the Japanese retail market is a great success for CP Group as Japan is considered to be among the toughest markets to penetrate when it comes to food items.

CPF, the SET-listed food flagship of the conglomerate, has been working vigorously to establish the CP brand in global markets in order to increase product value and remodel its business from raw-material trading to food processing.

The company's president and chief executive, Adirek Sripratak, favours the business model of ConAgra, one of the world's largest packaged-food companies, based in Nebraska.

The brand-building efforts have paid off in Hong Kong and Singapore, according to Mr Prasit, who said nearly all retail stores in Hong Kong now have CP-branded products while markets in Singapore have shown impressive development.

Apart from regional exports, the CP Group is also shipping to other markets such as the United States and the European Union.

In the US, the company has business ties with Costco, a leading membership warehouse club chain to which it supplies a range of food products to stores in and outside America.

"We sell approximately 80,000 cups of shrimp wonton soup to Costco every day.