Thailand is one of the main players in the world seafood industry. In 2012 fish production
totalled about 3.0 million MT, while exports reached 1.91 million MT valued at 264.4 billion
Baht (US$8.8 billion) making Thailand ranked 3rdin the world’s main exporters behind China
and Norway. Thailand is also important market in Asia, imported around 1.67 million MT of
seafood products worth Baht 100 billion (US$3.3 billion) last year. During the last decade,
there has been a great deal of expansion in the frozen shrimp and cephalopods processing
industries as well as tuna canneries. Thailand is now world biggest producer and exporter of
canned tuna and shrimp. It imports seafood products from all over the world and Peru is
increasingly becoming one of the important suppliers to Thailand.
Domestic production, on the other hand, is on the downward trend for the past decade due
to the declining marine capture fisheries while aquaculture particularly shrimp has been
facing diseases related problems in recent years. Having huge seafood processing capacity
and at the same time growing domestic demand due to increasing disposable income of
local consumers, imports of fishery products are on the rise and are expected to increase
further in the years to come.