MLBA7: February / March 2009
The big setback for Thailand's pork export
Unlike Thai chicken and shrimp, which have become leading imports in the West, the country's pork industry has not been as competitive internationally. Be that as it may, the local pork sector, like its aquaculture and broiler brethren, has long trained its eyes on the lucrative export market.
Traditionally, Thai pigs were meant for local consumption. They came chiefly from backyard farms, raised by rice farmers to consume farm by-products and wastes and generate extra farm income. Its first known export happened only in 1977. Government statistics show that during that year the country exported 639 head of swine and 16 tonnes of pork products.
Predictably, Thai pork export stagnated in the next decade, due mainly to the poor condition of slaughterhouses, a problem that persists until today, as well as the fact that the meat processing sector was then underdeveloped.
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