The audit team, called the “Shrimp Sustainable Supply Chain Task Force”, which started work in December last year, is expected to cover the entire CPF supply chain. Pitipong Dejjarukul, the vice president of CPF’s quality control department, revealed on Wednesday that the results of the audit team should be known in the third quarter of this year. The auditing team was an international organisation, but he declined to disclose their name.

“CPF has established a Shrimp Sustainable Supply Chain Task Force by cooperating with a purchaser and an international organisation to endorse the traceability of the company,” he affirmed.

The auditing team would be concerned with two main points: fishing vessel validity and labour, which were also main concerns mentioned by the EU in their April 2015 warning to Thailand.

The EU said it would give the country six months to tackle its illegal, unregulated fishing practices or face sanctions.

The audit team consists of five people from the international organisation and a translator for migrant workers. However, the team has only been able to check two boats per day, as the auditing process required in-depth and accurate information.

He also said that the audit team would help draft a code of conduct and policy and the results of the draft would be implemented for fishery labour.

Pitipong also revealed information about such measures to improve the company’s traceability as the visit of a naval officer’s team, established to tackle IUU, to the CPF facility in Hatyai district, Songkhla province.

The Songkhla CPF plant produces 20,000 tonnes of aquaculture feed monthly, made up of 10 per cent fish and 90 per cent crops, which are sold to aquaculture farmers in the southern part of Thailand.

CPF confirms that it has complied with the EU’s warning about traceability by using purchasing policies such as: the company will use only legal fish that meets the International Fishmeal and Fish Oil Organisation’s (IFFO) standard; the company will only use IFFO supported fish from byproducts (fish remains from other factories) and when catching fish has to comply with an international standard and be able to determine the origin of the products.