Improving Seafood Processing in Small Enterprise: A Case Study of Mixed Fish Sauce Production

Abstract

 The seafood industry is economically important and generates high income. Therefore, the government has a policy to push the Thai food industry into a global food hub. This is a good opportunity for Thai seafood industries throughout the supply chain. In increasing the quantity and value of the export of Thai aquatic products. The fish sauce market has been adversely affected by the competition of seasoning powders that can be easily substituted and have good taste. This trend has had a serious impact on the competitiveness of small operators. Therefore, this research focuses on the study of the blended fish sauce production process, which is low price, large market, and high competition. But has a relatively high energy cost by increasing productivity in the brewing process at lower energy costs. The improvement results showed that the energy cost per 1 cycle of mixed fish sauce production decreased from 1,210.65 baht to 536 baht or approximately 0.55 baht / liter to 0.24 baht / liter, which increases the productivity per unit of energy by approximately 56.36%.