BANGKOK -- Thai scientists have cloned more than a dozen breeding bulls and cows since 2003 and expect to clone 50 more this year to improve herds, the project's team leader said recently.

Rangsun Parnpai, head of a research team at Suranaree University of Technology in Thailand's northeast, said his team had successfully cloned 14 calves over the past 15 months.

They include seven males produced with stem cells from the ear of Toom Tam, a red Brahmin bull, that were implanted in the womb of a surrogate mother, and four female calves from cells from another red Brahmin, named Benz, he said.

"All the calves are healthy, there is nothing wrong with them," he told AFP.

One of Benz's cloned offspring, Benz 3, was to be presented to Thailand's Princess Maha Chakri Sirindhorn, the king's daughter, when she presents degrees to students at the university on Monday, he said.

Cloning of a premium cow that can produce up to 8,000 kgs of milk per year was also being undertaken at the university's farm in Chon Buri province.

"The cloning will help Thai farmers own high-breed cows on a low budget, as the country has banned imported breeds from the United States," Mr. Rangsun said.

Thailand banned US imports of beef and cattle in December 2003 when the US reported its first case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), or mad cow disease.

Mr. Rangsun, who in 2000 became the first scientist to clone a cow in Southeast Asia, said the price for breeding cows ranged from 100,000 to 2 million baht ($2,600 to $51,950) per head. He said he could provide Thai farmers with cloned dairy cows for as little as 20,000 baht ($520) per head.

Meanwhile, Britain last year saw a 51% rise in sales of fair-trade products that guarantee farmers in developing countries a just price, according to data published recently.

Consumers in Britain spent more than £140 million (€203 million euros, $269 million) on goods bearing the "fair-trade" mark in 2004 compared with £92 million a year earlier.

"Millions" of people in Britain were now choosing to buy products with the mark and thus ensuring that farmers gained "guaranteed benefits," said Helen Lamb, executive director of the Fairtrade Foundation, which carried out the survey. -- AFP