Analysis of demand for and supply of beef cattle in Thailand

Cattle production is an important industry in Thailand because the population and consumption of good quality beef have been increased in recent year. It is nessary to expand and develop production technology, especially for feed lot fattenning cattle, to increase quality beef for supplying domestic demand and replacing demand for imported beef. The objectiives of this study are : 1) to study general situation of production, marketing and consumption of beef cattle; (2) to derive an econometric model of supply and demand for Thai beef cattle; (3) to study the change on supply and demand for Thai beef cattle when the policy variable changes. The results of the study shows that the supply elasticities of fattenning cattle with respect to carcass beef prices and cattle feed prices is 0.1791 and -0.9158, respectively. The demand elasticities of fattenning cattle with respect to carcass beef prices, income per capita and imported high quality beef prices is -8.1299, 1.5164 and -0.0238, respectively. The import elasticities of meat of bovine with bone in with respect to import prices of carcass of bovine and number of tourists arrivals to Thailand is -0.2797 and 2.1073, respectively. The import elasticities of boneless meat of bovine with respect to import prices of boneless meat of bovine and number of tourists arrivals to Thailand is -1.1825 and 1.9523, respectively. The supply elasticities of beef cattle with respect to farm gate prices of live cattle and 2 years annual population of cattle statistics is 0.1612 and 0.7813, respectively. The demand elasticities of beef cattle with respect to farm gate prices, income per capita and difference proces between Bangkok live beef prices and farm gate prices of live cattle is -0.0737, 0.2138 and 0.0749, respectively. The supply elasticities of meat with respect to Bangkok live beef prices and farm gate prices of live cattle is 0.8407 and -0.287, respectively. The demand elasticities of beef with respect to Bangkok wholesale beef prices, income per capita and Bangkok wholesale pork prices is -0.095, 0.1586 and 0.1566, respectively. The supply elasticities of meat ball with respect to meat ball prices is 0.4575. The demand elasticities of meat ball with respect to meat ball prices, income percapita and consumer price index is -1.4923, 0.3773 and 0.711, respectively. These results indicate that a decreasing in carcass beef price can cause demand for fattening cattle increased and an increasing supply of fattening cattle can be done through government supports in production of top quality Bos taurus semen and research on concentrate feed for beef cattle in order to reduce production of top quality Bos taurus semen and research on concentrate feed for beef cattle in order to reduce production cost of fattening cattle.