World Food Policy Volume/Issue 2-2/3-1 Fall 2015/Spring 2016 | Page 38

Developing Local Sustainable Seafood Markets: A Thai Example

Figure 1: Seafood purchased by the Shop
Source: Shop buying receipts, 2014–2015

Seafood purchased by the Shop

fourfinger threadfin were procured both
locally and from southern provinces,
while lined silver grunt, striped sea
catfish, queen fish, and siamese glassfish
were sourced exclusively from southern
Thai provinces.

In Year 1, 59 distinct seafood
products were bought (i.e., whole fish,
shrimp of various sizes, some aquatic
species that had already been dried, salted
or sweetened). As Figure 1 shows, shortbodied mackerel was the most common
species purchased (a total of 2,141 kg
when factoring both raw and processed
product), although the Shop sourced
small amounts of multiple other species
to also meet consumer demand. Species
sourced from provinces in Southern
Thailand are an example of this, as often
only a few kilograms of a particular type

The Shop’s mandate is to buy local
seafood, with 95.5 percent of the Shop’s
product being sourced within Prachuap
Khiri Khan province where the Shop is
located. During its first year of operation,
the Shop procured a total of 7,972.38 kg
of seafood: 7,610.67 kg from Prachuap
Khiri Khan and the rest from southern
Thailand (236.56 kg from Nakhon Si
Thammarat, 99 kg from Trang, and 28.60
kg from Phattalung). Most species that
the Shop sourced were local, from the
seven fishing groups, including banana
shrimp, goldstripe sardinella, shortbodied mackerel, threadfin bream,
middle shrimp, and blue swimming crab.
A few species such as Indo-Pacific king
mackerel, white pomfret, barracuda, and
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