การศึกษาสภาวะการผลิตและการตลาดของอุตสาหกรรมปลาป่นในประเทศไทย / ฤดีวัลย์ เชาว์ชาญกิจ = A study on production and marketing of fishmeal industry in Thailand / Rudeewan Chowchankit
Fishmeal industry is one which transforms products from the fishing industry which would otherwise be discarded as wastes into fishmeal, and uses other raw materials which can be found locally. The industry provides income for local fishermen and hundreds of million Baht national income annually. It has been said that the fishmeal industry reduces the richness of marine life, However, without the industry, hundred tons of small fishes caught will have to be thrown away each year. Fishmeal is widely used locally and overseas as raw material for making animal food. It has high protein content, vitamin and complete amino acid. It also contains UGF, which is absent in other raw materials and which accelerates growth. Animals which feed on food containing fishmeal have a high rate of growth, and are healthy and strong. This thesis focusses on the characteristics and structure of the Thai fishmeal industry, the production and the trading of fishmeal between Thailand and other countries in the past and present, as well as the future prospects and related problems. Information were collected from questionnaire respondents comprising fishmeal and animal food manufacturers from interviews with people knowledgeable in the field, as well as research from various journals and a number of related research projects which are available. The study and analysis of the information collected indicated that many problems. The main problems facing the majority of manufacturers are: 1) Supplies of raw materials are irregular and to not always meet demand due to the relatively large number of fishmeal factories compared with the limited supplies of small fish. This situation had led to competition among factories to purchase raw materials, which in turn causes the price of raw meterials to rise. Furthermore the quality of these small fishes is relatively low. 2) Overseas market presents a problem. Expansion of overseas market for Thai fishmeal is limited by the fact that the quality of fishmeal does not meet international standard and the price is higher than that in other producing countries. Domestically, it is the buyer’s market as it is the buyer who will set the price of fishmeal according to the protein content level. The manufacturers have no bargaining power. Buyers will usually purchase fishmeal with approximately 60% protein content. Thus fishmeal with lower protein content are not marketable. Furthermore soybean cake which is a good substitute for fishmeal has been imported in large quantity causing a drop in the demand for and the price of fishmeal in the domestic market. 3) The establishment of standards of quality for export of fishmeal has affected in the raw materials used contain not only small fishes but also a large quantity of soil and sand, and separation process is difficult and costly. 4) The government does not give assistance to fishmeal exporters in finding foreign markets beyond those within the SEAN countries. Thus the market for Thai fishmeal is in a small circle. 5) Many manufacturers have financial problems due to the lack of capital and poor liquidity caused by the high cost of borrowing. 6) Labour turnover is high due to poor working conditions. 7) Robberies and thefts are frequent in the Southern part of Thailand Recommendations proposed in this thesis are summarized as follows. Manufacturers should rely on their own resources to improves production efficiency, lower production cost, control the quality of raw materials and to deal with pollution problem. On the marketing aspects, the association of fishmeal producers should be responsible for examining the protein content level, and setting the market price in coorperation with the government departments concerned and as agreed to by the animal feed mills. Fishmeal producers cooperatives should be set up to increase the bargaining power. For the foreign market, standards for fishmeal should be set clearly so that overseas customers can depend on the standards of Thai products, and also to enable further market expansion. The government should also negotiate with other foreign governments for tax reduction or exemption for the importation of fishmeal from Thailand. The government should provide the operators with financial support in the form of discounting of promissory notes.
