Budget allocated to help beef cattle farmers increase competitiveness

By THE NATION

 

 

The Free Trade Agreement Fund has approved a budget of Bt161.79 million for the Department of Livestock Development to help beef cattle farmers increase their competitiveness and improve product quality to compete with overseas products, Rapheephat Chansriwong, secretary-general of Office of Agricultural Economics (OAE), revealed on Friday (January 10).

 

 

“The Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which features SSG measure that limit import of certain products from Australia and New Zealand will expire on January 1, 2021,” he said.

 

“We estimate that the expiry of the agreement will increase the import of live cattle, frozen meat and frozen entrails from both countries as they are cheaper than domestic products. This will affect Thai cattle farmers who are already suffering from high production cost and unpredictable market prices.”

 

Rapheephat further explained that the OAE will work with the Department of Livestock Development in three areas: maintaining the consumption rate of domestic beef, increasing the numbers of beef cattle raised in Thailand, and improving the quality of cattle feed.

 

“The OAE and Department of Livestock Development will collaborate with private sector entities such as Premium Beef Ltd in developing a standardised cattle trading system to make sure that farmers receive a fair price for their products under a price guarantee mechanism,” he said. “This will also eliminate the concerns of not having markets for their products.”

 

“With this fund, we also aim to boost the production capacity of beef cattle to 250 animals per month or 3,000 per year, as well as install central feedlots that are certified under GAP [Good Agricultural Practices] standard and are FMD [foot-and-mouth disease] free at selected farms nationwide,” he added. “It is estimated that the project will help boost the consumption of domestic beef and reduce the import of products from overseas valued at Bt150 million per year.”

 

Source: https://www.nationthailand.com/news/30380419

 

-- © Copyright The Nation Thailand 2020-01-12

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So, they are going to spend 169million baht to "boost" production of domestic cattle to 3,000 per year? To improve competitiveness? Have you eaten Thai beef?

 

So each cattle cost's the taxpayers 56,333 baht in funding and price fixing?

 

Maths kids....this is what happens when you fail it.

Improving beef production is quite simple really....feed them!

Pineapple skin just makes them large and fat and rice straw has almost zero nutrients.....grow feed crops, grain crops and better grasses.

Thai beef is inedible <deleted>...tough and tasteless...even when minced!

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

developing a standardised cattle trading system to make sure that farmers receive a fair price for their products under a price guarantee mechanism,” he said. “This will also eliminate the concerns of not having markets for their products.”

In short establish once again another government subsidy system that guarantees a profitable price for Thai cattle products without concern for competitive global market pricing.

This kind of Thai domestic protectionism can't exist under the current FTA so Thailand must wait until the FTA expires. However, conversely Australia's ability to retaliate (ie., higher import tariffs on Thai beef products) has been restrained by the FTA; but unlimited except under WTO rules to retaliate against Thailand.

I'm sure any new FTA negotiations will focus in part on this proposed artificial Thai beef product competitiveness. As such during the next FTA negotiation period we might see a trade tariff war develop between Australia and Thailand should Australia beef product exporters suffer significant losses due to this proposed Thai cattle trading system. That financial pain can affect terms of trade for many other products apart from beef products that will likely disadvantage Thailand domestic markets. So in the end Thailand gains nothing and perhaps loses with this proposal in the long run.

4 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Rapheephat further explained that the OAE will work with the Department of Livestock Development in three areas: maintaining the consumption rate of domestic beef, increasing the numbers of beef cattle raised in Thailand, and improving the quality of cattle feed.

These areas are valid methods to increase Thai competitiveness without devices of trade protectionism.

More ideas are needed (ie., more mechanization, consolidation of small ranches for economy of scale) other than the typical government fallback on subsidizing the Thai market price if long-term economic sustainability is the goal (which it should be).

Australian Beef currently comes pre-roasted

1 hour ago, ChrisY1 said:

Improving beef production is quite simple really....feed them!

Pineapple skin just makes them large and fat and rice straw has almost zero nutrients.....grow feed crops, grain crops and better grasses.

Thai beef is inedible <deleted>...tough and tasteless...even when minced!

Is pineapple skin not bad for their 3 stomaches? Those nasty spines can't be good for them i guess.

3 hours ago, DLock said:

So, they are going to spend 169million baht to "boost" production of domestic cattle to 3,000 per year? To improve competitiveness? Have you eaten Thai beef?

 

So each cattle cost's the taxpayers 56,333 baht in funding and price fixing?

 

Maths kids....this is what happens when you fail it.

I bet they forgot a zero again....3000 cows in whole thailand? I guess that even chokchai has more than 3000 but i might be wrong.

 

haha 3000, compare that to australia where the outback is loaded with cows...

 

I won't eat thai beef, it's chewing gum.

5 hours ago, rooster59 said:

Thai cattle farmers

In Isaan I have never seen a "cattle farmer" seen lots of families that scrape a few Baht together to buy a few cows that they take out to feed everyday, fatten them up - which appears to be difficult! then sell them on for a small profit. Where do they apply for funds, or is applying limited to those who know the right people? 

'expiry of the agreement will increase the import'

 

Eh? What exactly is in that "free trade" agreement? One would thing having one in place would increase the imports.

3 hours ago, ChrisY1 said:

Thai beef is inedible <deleted>...tough and tasteless...even when minced!

Not all of it, they have finally gotten proper breeds here. But as you mentioned, good feed is not there, Thais are too stubborn to move away from their ancient rice growing.

Edited January 12, 20206 yr by DrTuner

Thai beef is not competitive because it is terrible.

 

Good luck with trying to compete with imports from Argentina, US, Australia and New Zealand. 

 

They don't have a chance.

Usual criticism from low knowledge base - in our area there has already been major effort to improve the stock lines, particularly with japanese 'marbled' beef breeds, and this is progressing, my wife is currently rearing 2 wagyu x calves, breeds such as Angus, Hereford, are introduced.

There have been suggestions that farmers need to move away from rice farming, and the best way is to provide another reliable revenue stream to provide the confidence for what would be for many Thai people a radical change. Perhaps this scheme will provide a little incentive to the progress already being made.

One of the main obstacles I have mentioned previously is the open range rice farming and roaming cattle not being conducive to growing other crops, or turning rice land into grazing.

Enclosing land for the individual can be very expensive, especially when taking into consideration current profit margins.

My thinking is a per meter subsidy for enclosure/fencing. Greatly enhances the opportunity to diversify and would provide much needed employment in rural areas.

However a reasonable low ceiling per landowner say 100,000 baht would be required to encourage the smaller farmer, but stop the larger farmers gobbling up the available funding.

 

 

 

 

 

8 hours ago, rooster59 said:

“The Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement, which features SSG measure that limit import of certain products from Australia and New Zealand will expire on January 1, 2021,” he said.

The old FTA that works only one way?

 

Generally speaking Thai beef is rubbish. Tough, no flavour and a waste of money.  One has to wonder what happens to all the unsold beef. Probably minced. At Villa mince is 600 to 650 a kilo. Way to expensive for a third rate product.

If they would swallaw their pride & get some consultants from NZ or OZ to suggest

correct breeds for the climate & vegetation, proper feeding, inoculations etc, blah blah

they can produce some good meat, why not ?

Some of the pasture I have seen past Saraburi looks a lot better than most of Australia's

Bit like Thai Airways, they need some help, thats all

47 minutes ago, natway09 said:

If they would swallaw their pride & get some consultants from NZ or OZ to suggest

correct breeds for the climate & vegetation, proper feeding, inoculations etc, blah blah

they can produce some good meat, why not ?

Some of the pasture I have seen past Saraburi looks a lot better than most of Australia's

Bit like Thai Airways, they need some help, thats all

blah blah blah is right google Australian beef cattle subsidies

On 1/12/2020 at 12:28 PM, DLock said:

So, they are going to spend 169million baht to "boost" production of domestic cattle to 3,000 per year? To improve competitiveness? Have you eaten Thai beef?

 

So each cattle cost's the taxpayers 56,333 baht in funding and price fixing?

 

Maths kids....this is what happens when you fail it.

I have tried eating it but couldn't it's way to tough and tasteless.