CONSUMER DEMAND FOR FOOD COMMODITIES IN THAILAND

The study, conducted jointly by the Thai Division of Agricultural Economics and Iowa State University, has three principal objectives: to estimate the effect of prices and income on food consumption in Thailand, to provide analyses of various commodity groups, and to estimate demand coefficients at farm and market levels. The first section develops a model for empirically estimating food demand in Thailand at Bangkok prices. The estimation of direct cross-price elasticities and income elasticities for the commodities to be studied is then considered. In the second section the farm-retail price spread (the difference between the retail price of a product and its farm value) is analyzed. A method is demonstrated by which demand elasticities at one level of the system can be derived from knowledge of elasticities at another level. The demand coefficients obtained in the study are subsequently interpreted, the uses and implications of the study"s findings are discussed, and recommendations are made for further research.