Int. J. Value Chain Management, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2019 123 Copyright © 2019 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd. Factors influencing the choice of marketing channels: evidence from dairy farmers in Thailand Thitiya Jitmun and John K.M. Kuwornu* Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioresources, School of Environment, Resources and Development, Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand Email: st118390@ait.asia Email: jkuwornu@gmail.com Email: jkuwornu@ait.asia *Corresponding author Abstract: This study assessed the factors influencing marketing channel choice of dairy farmers in Thailand using primary data obtained from 385 randomly selected dairy farmers in central and north-eastern regions of Thailand. Two types of farmers were surveyed: members of dairy cooperatives (DCs) and members of private organisations (POs) representing the two key marketing channels. Descriptive statistics were used to identify the socio-economic characteristics of farmers, and a binary probit regression model was used to examine the factors influencing farmers’ decision regarding the choice of marketing channels. The study revealed that dairy farming experience, the number of years of membership in the milk collecting centres (MCCs), distance to the MCCs, milk price, payment period, access to market information, advisory service, credit service and farm input service had positive influence whereas marketing experience had negative influence on the choice of selling to the DCs. The recommendations are presented. Keywords: binary probit regression; dairy cooperatives; smallholder farmers; milk marketing channels; Thailand. Reference to this paper should be made as follows: Jitmun, T. and Kuwornu, J.K.M. (2019) ‘Factors influencing the choice of marketing channels: evidence from dairy farmers in Thailand’, Int. J. Value Chain Management, Vol. 10, No. 2, pp.123–140. Biographical notes: Thitiya Jitmun was a graduate student in Agribusiness Management in the Department of Food, Agriculture and Bioresources at Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand, and is currently a Senior Officer at Cooperative Promotion Department of Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, Thailand. Her areas of work interest are supply chain management, cooperative organisation and networks, business development, agro-industrial development, trade policies, global issues and agribusiness management. John K.M. Kuwornu is an Associate Professor of Agribusiness Management at the Asian Institute of Technology, Thailand. His areas of teaching and research include agricultural marketing and trade, agricultural development, agricultural policy, marketing channels, consumer behaviour, supply chain management, commodity futures markets, econometrics, quantitative methods, climate change, agrobiodiversity and stock markets.