THE ANALYSIS OF FRESH BABY CORN INBOUND LOGISTICS IN WEST AND CENTRAL AREA OF THAILAND

Thailand is the largest exporter of baby corn in the world. The production area is around 200,000 Rai. Of this, 56,419 tons are canned baby corn with an export value of 1,514.05 million baht and 4,191 tons are frozen baby corn with an export value of 366.65 million baht. These products were sold to China, Australia, India and Arab but the major importers are the United States, Japan, The Netherland and Taiwan. The demand of baby corn continues to increase. Three key members of fresh baby corn supply chains in Kanchanaburi, Ratchaburi and Nakhon Pathom provinces of Thailand are growers, suppliers and packing houses. The growing area in the three provinces is 84.2% of the total baby corn growing area in Thailand. A survey of 63 growers shows that 62% of them are not participating in the contract farming system and not following the guideline of Good Agricultural Practices (GAP). The rest (38%) of the farmers are participating in the contract farming system and follow the GAP guideline. This is a result of requirements set forth by the exporting company, to whom the baby corn from the contract farmers are sold to, and the requirements of destination countries. The GAP certification is needed in the baby corn supply chain because of the traceability mandate. This paper will discuss the upstream supply chains of baby corn that are growers and suppliers. The analysis of supply chain management will be conducted based on the Supply-Chain Operations Reference-model (SCOR) and it consists of five processes: plan, source, make, delivery and return in order to obtain as-is status of fresh baby corn inbound logistics. Finally, the to-be plan will be suggested to improve efficiency and effectiveness in terms of supply chain management philosophy.