Page 9 - Meat & Poultry Edition 2026_No.87

From a market perspective, beef consumption ranges from alternatives in price, nutrition, and sustainability. These examples
price-sensitive mass markets to mid-market consumers seeking illustrate a broader shift from selling raw materials toward
freshness and value, and premium consumers prioritizing maximizing utilization and developing products tailored to specific
quality, tenderness, marbling, and standards. Meanwhile, rising consumer needs.
prices and economic pressure have increased the importance
of value for money and intensified competition from alternative Strategies for Developing Thailand’s Beef Industry
proteins. Therefore, opportunities for entrepreneurs lie in and Enhancing Competitiveness
allocating raw materials appropriately across different market Thailand’s beef industry should upgrade the entire value
segments, while simultaneously reducing costs and improving chain from production, aggregation, and feedlot operations to
efficiency throughout the value chain. These efforts would help slaughtering, trimming, cold-chain logistics, processing, and
increase the domestic production share of beef and value-added final markets. Reducing cattle-raising costs should be a priority
beef products and reduce reliance on imported beef. through farmer groups, cooperatives, aggregators, and contract
farming. These models can improve access to genetics, feed,
Potential and Business Opportunities and production inputs while establishing consistent standards for
The greatest potential lies in value creation rather than volume animal health, weight, age, and carcass quality. Regional Beef
expansion. As Thailand remains dependent on imported beef, Hubs should also be developed to connect production areas,
improving genetics, feed, animal health, weight, age, and slaughterhouses, and markets efficiently.
carcass quality can create differentiation and higher value. At the processing level, grading, pricing, and raw-material
Restaurants, hotels, modern retail, and online channels provide management should increasingly rely on clear criteria and
suitable outlets for higher-quality domestic beef. Growing reliable data. Technology adoption should match the scale
consumer interest in traceability, food safety, and sustainability and production volume of each facility, while slaughtering,
also provides opportunities to differentiate Thai beef beyond meat-cutting, cold-chain, and traceability systems should be
price and quality. Traceable products with clear origins and standardized to improve consistency, reduce losses, and
production standards could strengthen consumer confidence control costs. Sustainability should also be integrated into these
and support premium positioning. improvements through more efficient use of energy, water, and
Another opportunity lies in upgrading post-farm processes, other resources, together with effective waste and environmental
particularly slaughtering, trimming, and grading. Data-driven management. Economic efficiency and sustainability should
quality assessment can improve raw-material utilization and therefore be developed as complementary objectives.
pricing accuracy. Ultrasound can assess muscle area, fat In terms of trade, Thailand should gradually increase exports
thickness, and intramuscular fat in live cattle, while industrial of beef and value-added products while maintaining the live
tools such as the IMF fat sensor and carcass value calculator cattle market. Live-animal trade faces restrictions on movement
are still used to a limited extent in commercial slaughterhouses, and stringent disease-control requirements, whereas domestic
presenting an opportunity to improve raw-material utilization, slaughtering and processing can generate greater value and
reduce losses, and enhance the accuracy of carcass quality enable quality control throughout the chain. The strategic
assessment. direction should therefore shift from exporting live cattle and
Product development should maximize the value of every importing beef to producing higher-value beef and processed
cut. Premium cuts should be sold individually, while secondary products domestically, using the domestic market as the
cuts can be transformed into ready-to-cook or processed foundation before expanding internationally.
products. MBRF, a major Brazilian meat producer, demonstrates
a “Glocal” approach by adapting products to individual markets.
Offbeast, formerly Mooji Meats, has developed blended More Information Service Info C001
products combining beef with plant-based ingredients, offering

OCT 2026 MEAT & POULTRY EDITION 9

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