Blackchin tilapia sauce aims for double-win

A new fish sauce brand has been launched by the Samut Songkhram Central Prison as part of the effort to reduce the spread of invasive blackchin tilapia while also providing job training for prisoners.
The “Hub Phoei Mae Klong” brand is a collaboration between the Department of Corrections, the provincial Department of Fisheries office and CP Foods Plc to create a complete cycle of alien fish eradication, said Jitra Prasertsopha, the prison’s superintendent.
The project aligns with the Department of Corrections’ corporate social responsibility approach to developing activities for inmates while allowing them to learn directly from experts as part of their vocational training, she said.
Inmates at Samut Songkhram Prison were trained by fish sauce master Jittrakorn Buadee from Phetchaburi, whose idea of making sauce from the invasive fish has been widely praised.
CP Foods (CPF), part of the Charoen Pokphand agribusiness conglomerate, provided equipment and manufacturing expertise. 
“The project aims to provide inmates with job training while helping to reduce the blackchin tilapia, whose spread has caused concern among local fishermen and riverside communities,” Ms Jitra said.
The fish sauce is a spin-off venture from an ongoing project between the provincial fisheries office and the prison to catch blackchin tilapia in three local canals: Khlong Chong, Khlong Liab Thanon Ekkachai and Khlong Bang Bo.
Bundit Kunlawanit, director of the Samut Songkhram fisheries office, said the number of blackchin tilapia in local water sources has fallen since the programme began in August.
Since then, 509 kilogrammes of the fish have been caught, with 450kg used to produce fish sauce and the rest made into duck feed at the prison.
As well, the department has released predatory fish into local water sources and supplied them to the farmers to help eliminate the black-chinned cichlids.
The department says it has eradicated at least 90,000kg of blackchin tilapia from 17 provinces nationwide.
A House of Representatives sub-committee in September said a company that it declined to name was the sole importer of blackchin tilapia was at the root of the problem.
CP Foods has publicly acknowledged that it first imported blackchin tilapia for research in December 2010, with permission from the Department of Fisheries. But it scrapped the project a month later after they grew weak and died.
All the fish were disposed of properly and the process was documented in line with Department of Fisheries regulations, it said. It has sued an activist who has blamed the company for the spread of the fish.