World Food Policy Volume/Issue 2-2/3-1 Fall 2015/Spring 2016 | Page 44

Developing Local Sustainable Seafood Markets: A Thai Example

Shop a few times per month; even then,
they can only sell between 10 and 30
percent of their daily catch. Handling
large volumes of seafood and seafood
storage is therefore an issue for the Shop.
Since the Shop, up until this point, has had
limited storage capacity, fresh seafood
has been cleaned and/or processed and
then sold quickly to consumers. For
direct sales to consumers, for example,
the Shop sources seafood species in
response to demand. Operating under
a demand-driven business model,
the Shop determines what seafood
product consumers want and takes this
information to fishers; if fishers cannot
fill the order due to seasonality or low
catch volume this is communicated
back to the consumer. When last minute
requests are made, fishers have often
already sold their catch to a MP. Thus,
there can be a mismatch between supply
and demand.

The challenge with this model
is that “the quantity of the fish is
unpredictable”: a fisher could catch 100
kg one day and more or less of the species
the next day (013). One fisher explained
how, “one time [he] had caught 200 kg of
goldstripe sardinella but the Shop that day
only wanted to buy 100 kg from [him]—
hoping that tomorrow [he] would have
another 100 kg to sell. The next day [he]
didn’t have 100 kg” (013). Some fishers
felt that the Shop should not source
according to consumer demand, rather
that the Shop needs to promote what
local fishers are catching and hence what
is in season. Being able to handle greater
volumes of seafood product through
enhanced storage systems and more
focused processing (i.e., concentrating on
local main targeted species) will enable a

larger percentage of fishers’ catch to be
purchased.

In December 2016, to address these
challenges, the Shop moved operations
to Khan Kradai village. Here the Shop
is closer to the supply of local fish and
is able to employ community members
to assist with the workload (individuals
can work when it is most convenient
for them and be paid accordingly—they
do not need to be employed part or full
time). There are also plans to build a
factory to enable employees to process
and package products with greater
efficiency. However, as one Shop staff
member notes, this model will bring
new challenges including getting the
villagers involved in the processing so
that the Shop becomes a “business for
the community” (020). Nonetheless, this
move may address some of the storage
problems that the Shop faced in Year 1 of
its operations.
Ecological sustainability
Ecological sustainability is an important
component of the Shop’s model and is
of interest to fishers, Shop employees,
and consumers. Fishers note that the
Shop “provides a nontoxic aquatic
product to consumers,” ensures a “better
environment,” and in turn offers fishers “a
higher price … to have a better life” (013).
While ecological sustainability is clearly
valued (as per fishers’ comments, the
civic quality conventions, and the Shop’s
mandate), the Shop does not constantly
carry out ecological monitoring. While
the Shop has the equipment necessary to
test products for chemicals for instance
(including the sugar, fish sauce, and salt
used in processing), Shop staff only test
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