Sustainability in Poultry Production: A Comparative Study between Germany and Thailand

Abstract

Germany’s poultry sector plays an important role in the EU, while Thailand is one of the main broiler exporters on the global market. The intensive production systems used in the vertically integrated poultry industry have increased its competitiveness on the world market. However, concerns are increasingly being raised over the industry’s environmental impact, food safety and animal welfare in such highly concentrated and integrated production systems. It is therefore necessary to improve the production systems with a view to sustainability. Thailand and Germany’s poultry industries face different agro-ecological and socio-economic circumstances, as well as a variety of regional and national policies on sustainability in poultry production. As a result, this comparative study of Germany and Thailand can contribute to broadening the view on sustainability. This study aims to present recommendations on improving the sustainability of poultry production in the two countries. The two-round Delphi method was used to identify and rank the major sustainability concerns in poultry production by eliciting the opinions of participating experts through successive rounds of questionnaires. A combination of secondary data analysis and in-depth e-mail interviews was employed to analyse the roles of NGOs, animal welfare groups and leading integrated poultry companies in the sustainability of poultry production in order to assess why some sustainability issues are considered highly concerning. Results showed that social, animal welfare and economic issues dominate the current debate on sustainable poultry production. The use of antibiotics in poultry production, the killing of male layer chicks and the role of food retailers are considered highly concerning by the German experts, whilst the Thai experts considered the outbreak of avian influenza and other highly infectious diseases, disease control in neighbouring countries, the use of antibiotics in poultry production, the contamination of meat and eggs with zoonotic microorganisms, and standards for poultry products set by import partners as the most concerning issues. The German poultry companies mainly employed reactive strategies to improve sustainability in response to pressure exerted by NGOs and animal welfare groups. In Thailand, the poultry companies proactively adopted strategies to improve their production systems due to a lack of active NGOs and animal welfare groups within this sector. However, a number of limitations exist in regard to addressing concerning issues in the two countries, such as the use of antibiotics and outbreak of avian influenza due to the trade-offs between economic efficiency and consumer preference, the current availability of technology and innovation, the role of social media, and the level of direct communications between producers and consumers. This study makes a number of recommendations for improving the sustainability of poultry production, including to restrict the use of antibiotics in poultry production; to improve consumer perceptions on the poultry industry; to improve prevention strategies against avian influenza; to support the compartmentalisation of poultry production during avian influenza or Newcastle disease outbreaks; to support the geographic dispersion of genetic stock; to increase international collaboration on the prevention and control of contagious diseases in border areas; to improve existing technologies and practices by developing new technology and innovation; and to promote research on animal feed supply.