The Describing of Logistics Processes of Marine Crab Farmers in a Southern Province of Thailand

Abstract

Background and Objectives: In the context of Thailand, the food industry is considered the foundation of various products, with the food industry being of the utmost importance to the country's economic system. The marine aquaculture and natural fisheries industry is a major driver of the Thai economy, with the main production capacity in the southern region of the country, which is flanked by the two largest and longest coastlines, the Andaman Sea and the Gulf of Thailand. This qualitative research aimed to describing of Logistics Processes of Marine Crab Farmers in a Southern Province of Thailand.
Methods: The data were collected from 18 carb farmers and 4 middlemen who have consistently purchased marine crabs through interviews and observations.
Results: The findings revealed that the logistics management of the marine crab farming group consisted of 5 important processes: 1) Sourcing; Consisting of baby sea crabs, raw materials for raising sea crabs, and equipment for raising sea crabs. 2) Production; The condition of the crabs is adjusted by nurturing the crabs in cages before releasing them into the pond. 3) Storage, 4) Distribution, and 5) Transportation; The claws were tied with a large band of rubber bands and packed into a plastic bag tied to the mouth of the bag before being packed into a foam crate to wait for the car to pick up and deliver to restaurants and hotels in the Bangkok area. Additionally, there were 9 related farming activities: 1) Demand forecasting; It did not meet the predicted target, 2) Logistics communication; Most of them are middlemen, 3) Procurement;  Ordered crab balls from the Department of Fisheries, Pak Meng District, Trang Province, 4) Customer service; Through telephone and line to contact crab trading, 5) Transport; The farmer is responsible for the transportation costs, 6) Materials handling and packaging; It is a procurement in and around the area, 7) Inventory management; Crab babies are prepared in the crab nursery pond to rest and wait for the crabs to be ready to be released into the pond for the next time, 8) Loaction selection; It is an abandoned pond from shrimp farming and 9) Reverse logistics; Incomplete crabs are returned to be released back into the pond to continue to be raised as complete crabs.
Conclusions: Data synthesis shows that sea crab farmers pay attention to material handling and packaging. Farming equipment from the neighborhood and the survival rate of the baby crabs are important and distributed through middlemen who have been in contact for a long time through LINE and telephone channels.