Nile Tilapia Supply Chain in Surat Thani Province

Abstract

The research was conducted by the mixed-methods. The tools were the questionnaire, the in-dept interview form and the focus group. The results revealed that, at the upstream supply chain, 81.67 percent of the breeding procurement came from the fish breeding operators and 18.33 percent from the fish breeding farmers.  At the midstream level, the fish farmers shipped 70 percent of their produce to the consolidators, and 30 percent of their produce was sold to the contract farmers. For the downstream level, the contract farmers passed on 13 percent of the produce to the wholesalers, 12 percent to the retailers and 5 percent to the processors. Moreover, the consolidators also shipped 29.17 percent of the produce to the wholesalers, 22.17 percent to the retailers and 18.67 percent to the processors. For the problems and the obstacles in the management of the tilapia business chain, most framers had the transportation problems such as the shipment duration, the high transportation costs, and the marketing problems; the fluctuating price, the lack of competitiveness and the markets to support the sufficient output. It was also found that there was not enough support from the government. In addition, the serious issues should be solved were creating cooperation as a network or a farmers’ group, reducing the cost of production, increasing productivity through the technology and the innovation and processing of tilapia to add value as the quality products. For the suggestion, the proactive marketing and the public relations searching for the new markets should be conducted.