Author : Lukhana Kaennakum

Summary : Fisheries in Thailand is one of the important sectors in the recent years. Not only it is a protein source of the Thais, but it also contributes to a source of export income and foreign exchange earnings. this study aims to analyze consumption patterns offish and fishery products of the Thai households by employing the household survey data of the National Statistics Office. The survey samples of 34,785 households were used in the study. The Ordinary Least Squares technique was used in estimating parameters of the Engel's expenditure model. The results indicated that household in the northeast spent highest share for fish expenditure to food expenditure, following by households in the south, north, center and Bangkok, respectively. The share of fish expenditure to food expenditure of rural household is 11% while that of urban household is 6%. When grouping some fish and fishery products into three groups, namely freshwater fish, seafood, and fishery products, the econometric results indicated that household household income has negative effect while household size has positive effect for all those three groups consumption expenditure. MAle household head tends to spend more for freshwater fish and seafood than female household head. Household head who is older spend for those three product groups than the younger household head. Low-educated household head tends to spend more for freshwater fish and fishery products.