Thailand

A gradual decline in Thailand's marine catch is forcing skippers to fish as afar away as Africa. Meantime, back home, aquaculture booms on the back of value-added processing for new markets.

With total fisheries production unlikely to increase much further, the Thai government is encouraging fish processing companies, particularly prawn processors, to move further up the value added chain to increase export earnings. At the same time, Thailand's fishing fleet has signed joint venture agreements recently with several African countries. The deals

allow catch to be transported to Thailand for processing.

Thailand's total fishery production is about 3.8 million tonnes (Mt) a year according to the Department of Fisheries. Marine catch was about 2.6 Mt in 2002, down from 2.8 Mt in the mid-1990s. Marine catch is thought to have continued its decline in the last two years.

Paradoxically, total fish and seafood production has remained reasonably stable since the late 1990s, fluctuating by less than three per cent annually. It has been the growth of coastal aquaculture which has compensated for the decline in wild -- farmed has more than doubled from 300,000t in 1997 to 660,000t in 2002.

Wild at home

The Kingdom's traditional catch areas have been the Gulf of Thailand (69 per cent of total catch) and the Indian Ocean (31 per cent). Food fish account for 60 per cent or 1.6 Mt of Thailand's 2.6 Mt marine catch, while the 'trash' fish catch of 696,000t represents a further 26.5 per cent. Squid and cuttlefish production of 185,000t constituted seven per cent of the marine catch, the 78,000t shrimp catch three per cent and the rest is crab and shellfish.

The pelagic catch totalled 833,000t in 2002 while demersal fish production was 509,000t. Major pelagic species were anchovies 152,000t, Indo-Pacific mackerel 146,000t, sardines 129,000t and scads 104,000t.

The main tuna caught were longtail 63,000t and Eastern little tuna 51,500t. In addition, a significant proportion of tuna used by Thailand's canning industry is imported frozen for processing.

Major demersals were threadfin bream 121,000t, big-eye scad 103,000t, lizardfish 79,000t and crocker 52,000t.

Home Farm

Shrimp and prawns are the largest category produced by coastal aquaculture. Total production stood at 350,000t in 2002, of which jumbo tiger were the main species totalling 262,000t and they accounted for 75 per cent of shrimp and prawn farming output. Shellfish and molluscs are the other major items in the remaining 310,000t of coastal aquaculture production. Green mussels account for more than 60 per cent of output and cockles 20 per cent.

“Tiger prawn production is down from a peak of 307,000t in 2000 because of anti-dumping problems with the United States; also the EU, due to Generalised System of Preference (GSP) duty problems.,” a Department of Fisheries spokesman said. “The EU imports prawns from India, Bangladesh and others. When you compare quality, Thai prawns are better, but the others pay less GSP duty than us. We got a rate reduction on August 1, 2005, but we lost EU customers five years ago when GSP duty started so we have to go back looking for new markets.”

Thailand's coastal aquaculture has grown rapidly since the early days, in the late 1980s, when most prawns were reared near Bangkok. Today most prawn farms are located on the eastern seaboard as well as in the south on the Gulf of Thailand coast and on the Andaman Sea coast near Phuket.

“Aquaculture is very well controlled.

We audit farms and there are local government inspectors as well,” the spokesman explained. “Most problems have involved exports to European countries. There have been problems with heavy metals but these are not serious as the government has a monitoring programme. Antibiotic residues are not a problem. But with some products the bacteria level has to be zero, even though bacteria are natural in brackish water and are impossible to eradicate.”

About 200,000t of prawns and shrimp are exported each year accounting for 57 per cent of total production. The remaining 150,000t are consumed in Thailand. The United States takes about 50 per cent of prawn exports and Japan about 25 per cent.

Many prawn processing plants are located near major prawn farm areas and others are located on the eastern seaboard, around Bangkok and in the south.

“Prawns usually are exported frozen,” the spokesman added' “Ready prepared prawns are now popular in Thailand because the [fashion] in food is changing, especially in large cities. People are out at work. Previously you could not find prawns in supermarkets. We try to promote value-added prawn products and value creation.”

Home & Away

Thailand has been a major exporter of fishery products for more than two decades and currently ships about 1.45 Mt of seafood and other fishery products annually, with prawns and tuna heading the list in weight and value.

Japan is the biggest customer in tonnage terms on about 360,000t per annum, making up 25 per cent of exports. The US is second, taking about 250,000t (17 per cent of exports) and Malaysia ranks third with 140,000t.

Tuna, at number two, totals about 320,000t per annum, 85 per cent canned, with the US taking 22 per cent of 270,000t canned total, followed by Canada and Australia each on eight per cent and Britain with five per cent.

There are many canneries near Thailand’s two major fishing ports - Samut Sakhorn (near Bangkok) and Songkhla (southern Thailand). Canneries in Phuket (in the south) process frozen imported tuna.

“Some tuna are caught by Thai vessels, but they are often joint venture fishing operations with local companies in other countries that have to train the local crews. Some Taiwanese vessels also land tuna in Thailand,” the spokesman said.

Apart from supporting the development of jobs the Department also provides technical support to improve fishery product quality standards, including training for fishermen and fish processors, storage expansion and improved logistics.

For example the spokesman said: “We have a project to improve fish handling. We show fishermen how to insulate their fishing boats to slow the ice melt so they can keep their catches longer.” Most Thai fishing vessels now use plastic baskets with lids to seal them and so improve fish storage. Previously, uncovered baskets were used and stacked on top of each, other crushing and damaging the fish.

“There is better fish quality now they use baskets with lids. The fishermen get small, low interest loans from fish market authorities to buy the baskets -- but the banks still do not like to lend to them,” the spokesman commented.

“Thailand's fishing catch is going down, not increasing. That's why we have to increase value added processing and maintain quality. The processing industry is upgrading. There is better hygiene and improved quality. The government is concerned about food safety. Our department has to implement food safety policy. We want to ensure

one standard.”

The Department offers training for Thais and foreigners at the Southeast Asian Fisheries Development Centre

in Samut Prakarn and at the Fishery Faculty at Kasetsart University in Bangkok. It also has two research vessels which are also used to train skippers in tuna purse seining, longlining and bottom trawling.

As World Fishing has reported before, while seafood in the Thai diet accounts for about 60 per cent of edible seafood production, intensive poultry and pig farming mean cheap meat is more widely available. Fish, with rice, is fried or steamed or served in soups, while prawns are popular in spicy tom yum soup or are fried with vegetables.

“Fish is still popular in Thailand. The only problem is that the price of chicken is cheaper than fish,” he told me. “Fish is eaten at lunch and dinner while chicken is eaten mainly at dinner, but more is being eaten at lunchtime. Young people like fried chicken. Pork is cheap too. The young generation do not like to prepare food themselves.”

Future fleet

Thailand’s registered fleet has 50,000 vessels up to 25 metres in length,

the majority being less than 10m. Thai fishing companies have deep-sea joint ventures with foreign partners to fish in territorial waters belonging to Myanmar, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam. Africa is the most recent target area with joint ventures to fish in Somalia, Madagascar and Mozambique.