Representatives of 11 Thai companies, which exported Blackchin tilapia fish to 17 countries in 2013, will be invited to testify to the House committee for higher education, science, research and innovations.
The committee chairman, Takorn Tantasith, said that they want to know from where the 11 exporting companies had obtained the non-indigenous fish species, because none of them had imported the fish in the first place.
According to the records of the Fisheries Department, Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF), a subsidiary of Charoen Pokphand Group, was the only company which was given permission to import Blackchin tilapia from Ghana, for research and species improvement. 2,000 fish were imported, but 1,400 of them died during transportation to Thailand. 600 arrived safely, but all except 50 soon died. The rest died later and the research project was scrapped.
Takorn said the House committee will also invite the director-general of Fisheries Department to testify over the conflicting reports by the department about the fish exported by the 11 companies.
He said the department, in its first report, states that the exported fish were other species, but the second report maintains they were Blackchin tilapia.
CPF management, led by CEO Prasit Boondoungprasert, yesterday testified to the House committee in a closed door session, after the company had originally refused to testify but sent its reports to the subcommittee instead, chaired by Dr. Wayo Asavaroongruang.
Takorn said CPF management told the panel that it was not the responsibility of the company to send the dead fish fin samples to the Fisheries Department and that the department is responsible for examining the fish carcasses.
CPF also explained that the surviving Blackchin tilapia were raised in enclosed cement ponds, not earthen ponds as alleged by BioThai Foundation on social media.
Dr. Wayo told the media yesterday that the sub-committee had invited legal experts from governmental agencies for consultation on legal action to be taken against those responsible for the current proliferation of the invasive species. The fish have now spread to 17 provinces throughout the country.
The sub-committee, said Dr Wayo, is mulling civil, criminal and administrative lawsuits against the perpetrators, including the Fisheries Department.
Meanwhile, in Samut Sakhon yesterday, fish markets started to buy Blackchin tilapia from fishermen, at 15 baht/kg, a price announced by the provincial fisheries office as part of the efforts to get rid of the fish in watercourses.
One of the buyers, Chalermphol Kerdpun, told Thai PBS reporters that he used to buy the fish at 8 baht/kg. He said he agreed to buy the fish at 15 baht/kg from the fishermen using his own money before he gets the refund from the provincial fisheries office.
He complained, however, of the bureaucratic red tape, which requires the buyers to complete several forms and to take pictures of the fish they buy, to claim the refund.
The Samut Sakhon fisheries office has set the daily purchase quota at two tonnes.
Part of the fund will come from the Rubber Authority of Thailand, which offered to set aside 50 million baht to process the fish into bio compost for use in rubber plantations.
