CP Foods (CPF), part of the Charoen Pokphand agribusiness conglomerate, has denied any involvement in the spread of invasive blackchin tilapia in the country.
The company also said it was not the only importer of the fish, which the Department of Fisheries has confirmed. A check of its records showed that 11 companies had exported the fish to 17 countries about a decade ago.
Prasit Boondoungprasert, chief executive of CPF, said on Thursday that the company imported the fish for research in December 2010 but scrapped the project a month later after they grew weak and died.
“That happened 14 years ago. How does the spread [of the invasive fish] have anything to do with us?” he asked.
“We are a big company, and we have to follow the proper procedures. We have import documents. But I don’t know who else also imported the fish in large numbers. About 50,000 to 60,000 fish were also exported each year [from Thailand],” he said, adding that blackchin tilapia were raised as ornamental fish between 2013 and 2015.
Mr Prasit insisted the company had sent documents regarding the disposal of the fish to the Department of Fisheries. He was responding to the department’s claim that it did not receive such documents from the company.
The department gave CPF a permit to import 2,000 blackchin tilapia from Ghana in 2010 for research purposes in Samut Songkhram province.
CPF told the department the fish had died within three weeks of being brought to Thailand and had been buried.
But local residents later reported catching the alien species in shrimp farms and waterways in the province before their presence expanded. They have now been found in 16 provinces, including Bangkok, Rayong in the East and Nakhon Si Thammarat in the South. As their population grew, native fish species started decreasing in numbers.
DNA tests conducted by the department confirmed all the fish came from the same parent stock.
Bancha Sukkaew, the chief of the department, said on Thursday that its staff had found that about 230,000 blackchin tilapia were shipped by 11 exporters to 17 countries between 2013 and 2016.
However, exporting the fish was banned in 2018, he said. The fish were not a protected species so breeders may have taken them from natural sources, he added.
Mr Bancha also said the department had asked CPF to send documents related to its disposal of the fish but had yet to receive them.
The department has estimated that it will now take three years to bring the blackchin tilapia under control, using genetic modification to produce infertile offspring.
Male specimens will be genetically modified so they can mate and produce infertile fry, Mr Bancha said on Wednesday. At least 250,000 will be released over 15 months starting in December at the latest, he added.