ASF public health banner in Chiang Rai, Thailand, May 2019. Photo Bangkok Post
The outbreak of a lethal pig disease, African swine fever (ASF), has become Thailand's biggest social-political issue. Indications are that the Thai government may have been covering up the presence of the disease in the country for the past two years. Now, with extensive reports of ASF as the reason for a dramatic loss of small pig farms and an 80 per cent increase in pork prices, the government is in the hot seat.
As Vietnam and other neighbouring countries suffered from the ASF pig pandemic that began its devastating journey through the region in 2017, Thailand and its large pig corporations boasted of being ASF-free and a reliable pork supplier to the world. But in January 2022, Thai officials confirmed a case of ASF in Nakhon Pathom province - known for its pig industry - after years of saying that the disease was not present in Thailand. Since the confirmation, African swine fever has reportedly been found among pig farms in 18 provinces.
The situation among smallholder farmers indicates that the outbreak is much worse and began long before the first government report. A consortium of deans from 14 veterinary institutions in Thailand said they had informed the Department of Livestock Development earlier about the outbreak.
According to official data from February 2022, the number of Thailand small pig farmers has dropped by 43 per cent since last year. Over that period, the government brushed aside concerns about ASF, saying the country was free of the disease and provided no support to small farmers to deal with it. Until this year, small pig farms with between 51 and 500 animals accounted for about 30 per cent of Thailand's pork production, with almost all of their production consumed domestically.
The sluggish response from Thai authorities has generated suspicions among the public that there may have been a cover-up aimed at benefitting agribusiness giants at the expense of small-scale farmers. This suspicion is also backed by the fact that while small pig farms are struggling, shares of Thailand's biggest food producer, Charoen Pokphand Foods, jumped to their highest in nearly seven months in January 2022. Similar scenarios have transpired with ASF outbreaks in other countries.
With nearly half of the small farmers forced to leave the sector in the past year, ASF could have lasting impacts on the structure of the pig sector in Thailand. According to BioThai, the situation is similar to what happened with bird flu one and a half decades ago. At that time, Charoen Pokhpand’s share of the broiler chicken market increased to 33 per cent and 55.8 per cent for the laying hen sector after the collapse of small farms.
Meanwhile, Supot Lija, president of the Ethnic Community Health Promotion Association, revealed that while the outbreak of African swine fever is widespread across all parts of the country, so far, indigenous pigs raised in various ethnic communities remain safe from the epidemic. Supot believes the ethnic communities' way of using local feed sources, traditional pig and free-range pig farming have protected them. This situation is in line with findings in other countries that show that industrial feeds are one of the main vectors for ASF outbreaks.[1]
In response to the ongoing outbreaks and instability in the Thai pig sector, BioThai has put forward this public proposal to restore pig farms, especially in small and medium-sized farms:
- Support and promote the production of own feedstock from local raw materials instead of buying ready-made feed from large companies. Thailand has broken rice, rice bran, cassava and other crops that can be used for animal feed.
- Support ethnic or rural communities in remote areas to maintain pig farming for food security and family and community economy. Community pig farming is relatively safe from ASF due to its inherent biosecurity nature and the genetic diversity of indigenous pigs compared with industrial pig breeds.
- Recognise that one of the most efficient and resilient animal husbandry systems against the effects of low prices or epidemics for smallholders is mixed farming, where raising animals and aquatic animals are done together with the cultivation of plants.
- Encourage the establishment of cooperatives or farmer associations that act as butchers and deliver meat to local markets. This is an additional channel for smallholder farmers to sell more live pigs to cooperatives instead of having to produce for big companies under a contract farming system, giving farmers more bargaining power.
- Pig farmers in the contract farming system often lack bargaining power; for example, in most contracts, farmers are responsible for the risks of epidemics and other disasters. However, when pork price increases, the farmer has no share of the profits. For that, a government agency overseeing a "central contract" in the pig industry should ensure more fairness for small farmers.
- The ASF epidemic is fundamentally a problem rooted in the industrial pig farming model and the market power of large companies. Thailand needs to improve its laws and enforcement. The Trade Competition Act of 2017 protects smallholder farmers and small and medium-sized companies and forbids large companies from controlling the market. For example, when some companies have a market share of more than 30 per cent or pursue mergers and acquisitions that give them control over the market, they have to sell parts of their business, etc. The proposals and measures to be established by Thailand’s House of Representatives in dealing with ASF outbreaks should cover both the dimensions of sustainability and fairness for small farmers.
[1] GRAIN, ‘Box 1: Industrial feeds as a vector for ASF’, 2020, https://grain.org/en/article/6418-building-a-factory-farmed-future-one-pandemic-at-a-time