ASEAN countries are major sources of the swine produce in the world next to China, the U.S.

and EU. The production is mainly aimed to meet the domestic demands. However, the rapid economic growth of the ASEAN countries causes the income of the production likely to rise as well. The consumption of port and pork products tend to expand. Thus, ASEAN countries are accelerating expansion of swine production to meet domestic demand growth and to promote export in the region that is likely to grow as well. Thailand has the potential to produce and export swine products better as compared to other countries in ASEAN. Swine products of Thailand are recognized by ASEAN countries to have god standard productions, starting from the farms to the processing plants whole consumption of port in the country is not very high as compared to other countries. Although, swine production, particularly in Vietnam, is the top rank in ASEAN, consumption in the country is also at high level. Therefore, Thailand has so many opportunities to expand exports into AEC, especially exports of pork and pork products. Thailand also has opportunities to expand the portfolio of pig farms and processing plants in ASEAN countries such as Lao PDR and Cambodia. The governments of these countries support the investment of foreign investors in order to raise business standards and expand production of domestic swine industry. Strength and weakness in the AEC Swine breeding 1. Thailand: Strength: i. ii. The development of swine breeds is suitable for farming in this region. The production technology both at farm and slaughterhouses meets international standards and is compared favorably within the ASEAN countries. The development of a global standards farm management and turnkey manufacturing including research and development, breeding and processing plants. This results in a wide range of products to the markets that add options to consumers.

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Development of slaughterhouses and butcher shops including pork products processing plants by private sector of the Thailand and joint ventures with foreign countries are aimed to expand both the domestic markets and export markets.

Weaknesses: i. The cost of production remains high due to insufficient production of feed materials and prices remain high as compared to other pork production countries. Foot and mouth disease is a major obstacle to the development of swine production technology and improvement of the quality of the pork. The domestic competitiveness in the country is very high and earning per unit is low. Small farms and farms with less investment face with competition difficulties.

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2. Vietnam Strength: i. The government supports for imported breeding swines, especially from the U.S. and Australia, to produce higher quality products along with competitive export prices (targeting approximately 40,000 50,000 pigs/year) ii. The government supports to develop farm systems and more commercial standards. iii. The rapid expansion of large-scale pig farms, especially around major cities, to meet the demand for pork products that increases rapidly. Weaknesses: i. A high proportion of Vietnams pork red meat is substandard and there is an issue with use of growth hormones. As a result, there are chemical residues in pork. There is problem with plague because most farm management systems are not meet the standards. In some years, the country has to rely on imports of fattening pigs and pork to ease the shortages in the country.

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There is problem of importing large amount of live pigs and pork meat of bad quality, especially in the border with china, which affects the risk of controlling the spread of the disease. Consumption of pork and pork products remains high if compared with other countries in ASEAN.

3. The Philippines: Strength: i. There is an investment in large pig farms (1000 to 12000 pigs) of foreign investors, especially in the free port zone area, due to the tax privilege. ii. Pig Production Association of the Philippines urges the domestic swine producers to develop farming to be more profitable and discount at pig farm price by selling pigs under their own brands. iii. Extending of the foot and mouth disease-free zone results in expanding of the exports even more. Weaknesses: i. The island terrains are barriers to pig and feedstuffs materials transportation including the expansion of farming in a big scale. Foot and mouth disease is a still barrier to the export of pork products.

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4. Indonesia/Malaysia: Strength: i. The government support the farming of pigs (to control pollution caused by pig farms.). Swine production volume will focus to domestic consumption in addition to selfreliance in the production of pigs.

Weaknesses:

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Expansion of production faces restrictions on the consumption of pork and domestic pork products and faces with the problem of pollution from pigs including religious reasons. These makes the consumption of pork in the country is still in small scale.

5. Lao PDR/Myanmar/Cambodia: Strength: i. Foreign investors are interested in expanding into the pigs and pork products processing plants due to increasing demand. This movement results in adjustment of swine breeding standards. There is capacity to extend the forage crops to meet the growth in the swine breeding.

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Weaknesses: i. Most of the farm management systems are not standardized. Domestic pig price is high. As a result, there is dependency on imports. In addition, minor swine breeders cannot find loan to expand production to meet the increase in demand. Dependency on imported swine breeding and fattening pigs to develop pig farms in the countries.

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Consumption of pork and pork products is likely to increase in the ASEAN region. This appears to accelerate development of swine production among these countries by entering of foreign investors into business ventures to raise pigs and pig products.