World Food Policy Volume/Issue 2-2/3-1 Fall 2015/Spring 2016 | Page 40

Developing Local Sustainable Seafood Markets: A Thai Example

Figure 2: Top four species sold
Source: Shop buying receipts, 2014–2015

In Year 1, the Shop’s top three
revenue-generating species were IndoPacific king mackerel, large-sized
banana shrimp, and blue swimming
crab. These three species brought in
a total of 340,169.65 THB (10,205.09
USD), 313,972.23 THB (9419.17 USD)
and 124,613.55 THB (3738.41 USD),
respectively. Yet, in terms of volume,
short-bodied mackerel was the most
popular species with 1086.67 kg sold
(Figure 2). This does not even take into
account the sale of processed shortbodied mackerel which is prepared in
1 of 11 ways: boiled sweetened, dried,
dried-salted, salted, fried, sweetened,
steamed, without the fish head, pickled,
with noodles, or with chili powder. These
aforementioned four species represent
two thirds of the main species targeted
by fishers in the area.

The Shop sells 79 distinct seafood
products. Of the 42 processed seafood
products sold by the Shop in 2015, 29

are processed in Shop, whereas the
other 14 are processed by fishers, their
families, or community members and
then bought by the Shop. Drying, salting,
sweetening, steaming, or creating a sauce
for various species is something the Shop
does as a way of broadening consumer
choice. For example, in addition to shortbodied mackerel processed in 1 of 11
ways, dried or salted versions of banana
shrimp, fourfinger threadfin, goldstripe
sardinella, mullet, threadfin bream, tigertoothed croaker, and yellowstripe scad
are also popular, as are eggs (from blue
swimming crab and white perch) and
shrimp paste; over 300 kg of shrimp paste
was sold in the first year of operations.
Shop employees believe that processing
can increase consumer interest in local
seafood, through a variety of taste options,
along with increasing the revenue earned
by the Shop since processed seafood
products are sold at a higher price.

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