Panel blames ‘sole importer’ for invasive fish

CP Foods is never named in a statement from a House committee that called for legal action.

Blackchin tilapia fish caught from Sanam Chai and Khok Kham canals in Samut Songkhram are cooked to serve people at the BKK Food Bank activity held at Bang Khunthian district office in Bangkok on July 19, 2024. (Photo: Apichart Jinakul)
At the BKK Food Bank event held at the Bang Khunthian city company in Bangkok on July 19, 2024, people are prepared to eat blackchin fish bass from Sanam Chai and Khok Kham rivers in Samut Songkhram. ( Photo: Apichart Jinakul )

A House of Representatives subcommittee that investigated the spread of aggressive blackchin tilapia fish and ways to address the issue has pointed the finger at an unknown business that it claimed was the fish’s sole importer.

Wayo Assawarungruang, a People’s Party MP who chairs the subcommittee, said the board recommended that state firms pursue legal action against the business for breaking Part 97 of the National Environment Quality Promotion and Protection Act 1992.

He suggested that these organizations include the Department of Fisheries, the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, as well as the provincial government bodies in regions affected by the fish’s unfold.

The invasive species has now been confirmed in 79 towns of 19 regions, he said. Shrimp groups and various kinds have been seriously harmed by the fish, according to some accounts.

The root cause, he said, was the only supplier of the kinds, which brought 2, 000 of the seafood into the country from Ghana in 2010, citing a record of grants issued by the Department of Fisheries.

According to Dr. Wayo, the firm cited as the reason it requested blackchin tilapia importation because it wanted to improve the Egyptian tilapia at its research facility in Samut Songkhram’s Amphawa district.

The company had applied for permits to import the fish earlier, in 2006 and 2008, but it did n’t use either permit, he said.

Given that the bass have spread to a number of areas that are not connected to a creek or the ocean, the subcommittee discovered that some people had even assisted in the spread of the types.

According to him, an analysis of the DNA on the blackchin fish found in these locations revealed that they most likely came from the same place.

The criticism MP said a recent DNA analysis between blackchin fish samples collected from six regions between 2017 and 2021 and DNA samples from seafood from Ghana and the Ivory Coast stored in the district’s DNA Bank confirmed that the two examples were exactly the same.

With permission from the Department of Fisheries, CP Foods Plc ( CPF), a subsidiary of the Charoen Pokphand agribusiness conglomerate, has publicly acknowledged that it imported the fish for research in December 2010. However, after they became frail and passed away a month after, the project was abandoned.

According to the statement, all the fish were properly disposed of and the procedure was documented in accordance with Department of Fisheries requirements. It has filed a lawsuit against an advocate who claimed the business is to blame for the spread of the bass.