The study objectives are to study market structure and market behavior of pork meat retailers in the well-established market places, to measure the pH level of fresh meat and bacteria amount in meat, to examine the purchasing behavior and attitudes of the buyers, and to observe the consumer's preference of pork meat processed through quality control measures. The research designed to collect data from random samples. Making use of well-prepared questionnaires and formal face-to-face interview obtained 160 retailers and 800 corresponded buyers from each livestock region, both private and municipal markets. For pH measurement and bacteria investigation, the research took samples randomly from 26 permanent market places in Bangkok Metropolitan, and one to five samples of chopping blocks from each market. For preference testing, both male and female samples were people who took part in a Meat-Milk-Egg Festival event during 26-30 May 2004 and willingness to cooperate the test. The qualitative data in terms of nominal, ordinal and attitudes were process in percentage of frequency. The cross tabulation was applied for these data. Moreover, the hypothesis testing of difference answers among the livestock regions (9 zones and Bangkok) was underlined the Chi-square statistics with the significant level of 0.05. The quantitative data, on the other hand, were measured in terms of weights, amounts and values. Their average values were calculated and analysis of variance was used to testing the hypothesis of data difference or relationships. The test used the significant level of 0.05. In addition, the multiple regression technique was applied for testing the relationships between the amount of bacteria and concerned exogenous variables. The permanent fresh market structure study revealed that the majority were morning markets, with the average retailers of 12 chopping blocks. These retailers sold only pork meat and had a market share of 16.52 per cent. Each retailer occupied the chopping block areas of 2.45 square meters, with the usage areas of 3.43 square meters. The majority of the retailers obtained the pork meat by buying the life-pigs from the pig farms directly. The life-pigs were then transferred to the slaughterhouse an average of 2.90 heads per day. There were not the cooperation among the retailers. A new retailer was easy to enter the markets, but it would be difficult to sustain his business due to the customer s royalty to the prior retailers in that market. Most retailers passed the pork meat inspectors and obtained the certificate of quality guarantee. Most market places had their ruches of cleanness and provided the workers for this purpose. The market behavior study showed that the retailers operated on cash business. Moreover, they set up pork meat price daily by using market prices and the typical promotion strategy was also applied. Their main customers were food shops, with the share of 37.4 per cent of pork meat sold daily. If there were unsold meat left, the retailers would keep it in their own refrigerators. However, they disagreed with the proposed idea of central freeze room establishment in the market places. The attitude of retailers toward chilled meat was poor due to the fresh meat preference of the buyers, although the informations and knowledges of the cleanness of pork meat were provided. The major problems of the retailers included the high marketing cost, the high competition from the open-market buyers, and the decrease in customers. In sum, the retailers disagree with the proposed policy of standard slaughterhouse restructuring and the chilled meat selling because the consumers preferred the fresh meat.
展开▼
