Saving Seafood

US agencies to host webinars on Uyghur forced labor law and the seafood sector

November 8, 2024 — U.S. regulatory agencies will host a series of three webinars in November to discuss the ramifications of the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act on the seafood sector.

The webinars come roughly a year after scandalous reports by the Outlaw Ocean Project revealed a litany of labor abuses in China’s seafood industry, including evidence of forced labor by China’s oppressed Uyghur population in seafood supply chains. The reports led to U.S. company’s severing ties with Chinese seafood supplier and increased scrutiny from U.S. lawmakers and regulators.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NFI Shares Seafood Industry Labor Principles Following India Shrimp Labor Abuse Reports

March 27, 2024 — Late last week, following the multiple reports on human rights and environmental abuse within India’s shrimp industry, the National Fisheries Institute (NFI) Executive Committee of the Board of Directors adopted and shared the “Seafood Industry Labor Principles, A Commitment By NFI Members.”

“There is no place for labor abuse in the seafood supply chain,” the document reads. “Every worker should have freedom of movement and no worker should be coerced to work.”

The Associated Press, Outlaw Ocean Project, and Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL) all released reports last week exposing alleged labor abuse within India’s shrimp industry. Choice Canning Company, which has been exporting seafood products from India for the past 67 years, was named by a whistleblower in the report put out by Outlaw Ocean Project. According to the whistleblower, a 45-year-old American named Joshua Farinella, some Choice Canning workers were prohibited from leaving the facility. As general manager of Choice Canning’s plant six miles northeast of Amalapuram, Farinella also found himself covering up overcrowding when inspectors came, and even sending out shrimp that knowingly tested positive for antibiotics.

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Southern Shrimp Alliance requests Indian shrimp be added to US Labor Department’s list of goods produced with forced labor

March 26, 2024 — The Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) has issued a formal request that Indian shrimp be added to the U.S. Department of Labor’s 2024 List of Goods Produced by Child Labor or Forced Labor.

The list is released annually, though the 2023 report has still not been issued. In the 2022 report, Taiwan, Thailand, China, Bangladesh, and Myanmar were called out for the alleged use of forced labor in their fishing or shrimp-processing sectors. In the 2020 report, Brazil, Cambodia, El Salvador, Kenya, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, the Philippines, Tanzania, Uganda, Vietnam, and Yemen were cited as having child labor present in their seafood industries, while countries listed as having forced labor in their seafood sectors included China, Taiwan, Thailand, Bangladesh, Ghana, and Indonesia.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

6 Takeaways From The Indian Shrimp Labor Abuse Allegations By CAL, AP and Outlaw Ocean Project

March 25, 2024 — India is one of the largest producing countries of shrimp, exporting 653 million pounds to the U.S. alone in 2023, which represents 37.6% of imports. But now, the industry is facing some serious allegations. This week the Corporate Accountability Lab (CAL), the Associated Press (AP), and the Outlaw Ocean Project (OOP) have all accused India’s shrimp industry of human rights and environmental abuses.

On Wednesday CAL released their report titled “Hidden Harvest: Human Rights and Environmental Abuses in India’s Shrimp Industry.” The 97-page document, which is based on over 150 interviews with workers and other stakeholders, sheds light on abusive conditions, forced labor, environmental harms and certification schemes.

“Human rights and environmental abuses in global shrimp aquaculture have been documented for over a decade,” the press release from CAL explains. “Yet, India— despite its huge market share—has remained under the radar. Indian shrimp have been considered a “low-risk” source, even with telltale signs of abuse. CAL’s multi-year field investigations and interviews provide some of the first documentation of the widespread abusive and dangerous labor and environmental practices in the Indian shrimp sector—including shrimp products certified to be socially and environmentally responsible by the industry’s largest certification programs.”

Read the full article at Seafoodnews.com

Responses flood in to reports alleging problems in India’s shrimp industry

March 23, 2024 — Separate reports from the Corporate Accountability Lab, the Associated Press, and the Outlaw Ocean Project investigating labor and food safety issues in India’s shrimp sector have elicited a vociferous response from the seafood industry at large.

Sysco, Great American Seafood, Rich Products, Walmart, Eastern Fish Company, and Nekkanti Sea Foods issued statements outlining their buying policies and/or addressing particular issues raised by the AP article. Sysco said it has suspended its purchases of shrimp from Nekkanti pending an internal investigation into the company’s alleged use of a third-party peeling shed, which is not permitted under Sysco policy. US Foods, Aldi, Costco, Hannaford, Kroger, Stop & Shop, Walmart, and Whole Foods, Red Lobster, and the Cheesecake Factory were also named as buying shrimp from Nekkanti, as listed on Nekkanti’s website.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

North Korean workers used by Chinese seafood suppliers, Outlaw Ocean Project finds

February 26, 2024 —  Seafood processed by Chinese companies using labor from North Korea has made its way into international seafood supply chains, according to a new Outlaw Ocean report published in The New Yorker magazine.

The latest story builds on previous work by the Outlaw Ocean Project which discovered evidence of Uyghur labor in the supply chains of prominent seafood companies, retailers, and distributors. The new report details evidence gathered over several months which suggests Chinese seafood processing companies providing seafood for companies in the U.S., Canada, and Europe are using North Korean labor to cut costs – violating United Nations sanctions and laws in the respective countries.

Outlaw Ocean said its team of researchers partnered with investigators and advocates in South Korea and China to obtain evidence of North Korean workers being forced to work long hours for little pay in long-term contracts. Interviews with North Koreans, kept anonymous out of fear of persecution, detail work conditions wherein the laborers – mainly North Korean women – were often held inside fenced-in worker compounds and compelled to work via coercion and threats against family members.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

NGO files Magnitsky sanctions recommendation in US against Chinese processors

January 11, 2024 — An NGO confirmed to SeafoodSource it has formally filed a recommendation to implement Global Magnitsky (GloMag) sanctions against Chinese companies named in the recent Outlaw Ocean report on labor issues in the U.S. seafood supply chain.

The Outlaw Ocean report revealed evidence that seafood processed by Uyghur labor in China has entered the U.S. supply chain – a violation of the U.S.’s Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act (UFLPA). The report – along with video evidence that was released later – identified Uyghur laborers in the supply chain of several Chinese processing and fishing companies that provide seafood to dozens of companies worldwide, including several in the U.S.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Summit addresses seafood industry’s human rights problem

November 7, 2023 — The first fully in-person Tokyo Sustainable Seafood Summit (TSSS) in four years – after online-only events throughout the Covid-19 pandemic – ran from 17 to 19 October, and the event highlighted human rights issues in the seafood supply chain in the wake of the bombshell Outlaw Ocean Project report on 9 October.

Since its inception in 2015, the event, co-hosted and financially supported by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation, has served as a networking platform for seafood companies and environmental NGOs to share ideas and discuss solutions to sustainability issues the industry is facing.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Social audits for MSC, ASC, BRC certification likely missed evidence of Uyghur forced labor

October 16, 2023 — A weak social auditing process, including heavy reliance on self-assessments, allowed the presence of Uyghurs in Chinese seafood processing facilities to go undetected by seafood certification nonprofits including the Marine Stewardship Council, the Aquaculture Stewardship Council, and the British Retail Consortium, according to a report from The Outlaw Ocean Project.

The independent journalism group published a report in The New Yorker on 9 October outlining its investigation into the use of state-sponsored forced labor, as defined by the U.S. Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act of 2021, in 11 Chinese seafood processing plants, most of which carried the joint MSC/ASC chain of custody certification.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

Lund’s Fisheries, PAFCO cease business with Chinese processors named in Outlaw Ocean report

October 15, 2023 — Cape May, New Jersey, U.S.A.-based Lund’s Fisheries has ceased its business relationship with a Chinese supplier in the wake of a report by the Outlaw Ocean Project on the use of Uyghur laborers at seafood companies in China.

Lund’s Fisheries, in a statement released on 13 October, said that upon hearing questions and criticisms about Rongcheng Haibo – one of several Chinese companies named by the Outlaw Ocean Project in its report – it initiated an internal investigation and “resolved not to renew existing contracts with Rongcheng Haibo until that work was complete.” Now, although the company said it did not find any evidence of illegal activity or forced labor at Rongcheng Haibo, the company will continue to maintain the cessation of new business “pending further investigation.”

Read the full article at SeafoodSource