SPECIAL
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MAY 2017 FOOD FOCUSTHAILAND
Themajorityofcattle inThailand isanative
breed. The cow is quite small, with short hair
inmany colours, andweights around200-350
kg. They can eat naturally grown grass, but
slowlygrowandhasgood resistance to tropical
diseases. Approximately 67.5% of Thai cattle
is the native cow. Later on, breeders tried to
mix foreignbreedswith thenativebreed inorder
tohaveabiggerbut tropical diseases resistant
cow. Brahman breed was chosen as it is
suitable for farm works and yield beef.
Nowadays, the Australian Brahman and
American Brahman are twomain breeds that
arepopularly raised inThailand, taking29%of
the national herd, and are promoted by the
government. Still, there are attempts to mix
other foreign breedswith native cows for beef
and toleration to live inThaienvironment.Cattle
breeds such as Charolais, Limousin, and
Hereford,arebrought inand takearound3.5%
of the national herd. Productivity from beef
cattle industry increaseseveryyear,andgrowth
rate in2004 - 2008 isaround4.2%. This isnot
yetenough -slightly too low - for localdemands,
and high quality beef must be imported every
year.
At present, there are 2 main agencies
supporting andmarketing high-quality beef in
Thailand; (1) Pon Yang Kham Livestock
Cooperatives and (2) Kasetsart University
Kamphaeng Saen Campus Beef Producer
Cooperatives. Both cooperatives have high
qualitybeef shops inBangkokunder thename
“Thai-Freshmeat”and “KUBeef”, respectively.
The promotion encourages high-quality beef
cattle, especially for Charolais breed. Most
cattle are raised in the Northeastern Region,
with 4,063,845 cows (58.1%), the central
Region–1,279,755cows (18.3%), theNorthern
Region – 1,026,577 cows (14.7%), the
SouthernRegion–627,692 cows (8.9%). The
province with most cattle are Nakhon
Ratchas ima, Bur i ram, Sr i saket ,
Ubonratchathani, andSurin.
Beef cattle serves three markets in
Thailand; premiummarket,middlemarket and
lowermarket.Thepremiummarket takesabout
20% of themarket share, while the rest goes
tomiddle and lowermarkets. There are fewer
restrictions for the latter twomarkets,asbreeds,
age, and gender of the cattle are not crucially
considered. Themiddlemarket includes beef
sold in wet markets and restaurants, and the
meat usually comes from the animal’s hind
legs and front leg. For the lower market, any
other parts of beef left from other markets is
sold to make meatballs, and the price range
of the beef is very low at around 100 – 140
Baht/kg.
Meanwhile, at least 50%of thebeef sold in thepremiummarket are foreignbreeds,
which raised tenderly with high quality food for up to 10-12months after the cow turns
8-12monthsoldorweight around200kg.When thecow is fully fattened, it shouldweight
about 450 kg. Consumers in thismarket, who aremiddle to higher income and foreign
tourists, focusheavilyon thequalityof thebeef.Distributionchannels includesupermarkets,
premium restaurants,hotels,and touristattractions.Themeat isusually frozenormatured,
with an averagepriceof around 300Baht/kg.
Making “Thai Beef Cattle”Premium Industry
The government has ameasure to promote value added agricultural and agro-industry
products by enhancing standards, formats, and packages in response to increasing
demands in the regionand theworld. Themeasure isconducted invarious frameworks,
with an ultimategoal to generate incomes for Thai people in every level.
