Saving Seafood

Thai Union scored record profits in 2020, despite Red Lobster losses

February 22, 2021 — Bangkok, Thailand-based seafood giant Thai Union earned a record profit last year despite losses from its Red Lobster affiliate, the company said in its Q4 results report, released 22 February.

The company’s net income in the fourth quarter rose 38 percent year-on-year to THB 1.46 billion (USD 48.6 million, EUR 40 million) on the back of strong core business results. The company’s net profit reached THB 6.25 billion (USD 208 million, EUR 17.2 million) last year, an increase of 64 percent from 2019. Thai Union said this is the first time that its net profit has surpassed THB 6 billion (USD 200 million, EUR 164.7 million).

Read the full story at Seafood Source

ISSF adds social and labor standards to membership requirements

November 24, 2020 — The International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF) has added new labor and social standards to its requirements for member companies, which include tuna processors, traders, importers, transporters, marketers, and more.

The new standard – Conservation Measure 9.1 Public Policy on Social and Labor Standards – will require any business associated with ISSF to develop, and publish, social and labor standards and/or a sourcing policy that applies to the entire supply chain, which addresses forced labor; child labor; freedom of association; wages, benefits, and employment contracts; working hours; health and safety; discrimination, harassment, and abuse; and grievance mechanisms. The policy must be public – meaning it must be at a minimum available to the general public.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Coronavirus forces Red Lobster to explore rent easements, refinancing options

August 26, 2020 — Thai Union is looking at refinancing Red Lobster’s loans, reduced rent from landlords, and potentially closing some locations after the restaurant chain posted a USD 18.4 million (THB 579 million, EUR 15.6 million) loss in the fourth quarter.

The record losses were caused by having to close down all 600 dining rooms for a period of time, Thai Union Chief Financial Officer Joerg Ayrle said on an investor conference call.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Restaurant, catering group nears settlement with Chicken of the Sea on price-fixing suit

May 28, 2019 — A group of restaurants and catering companies have reached a USD 6.5 million (EUR 5.8 million) agreement with San Diego, California, U.S.A.-based Chicken of the Sea and its parent company, Thai Union, to settle a lawsuit alleging price-fixing.

The lawsuit stems from a price-fixing scandal in the U.S. canned tuna market exposed by a U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) investigation in which Chicken of the Sea served as the whistleblower. The scandal led to prosecution of Chicken of the Sea’s primary co-conspirators, Bumble Bee Foods and StarKist. Both companies pleaded guilty to criminal charges in cases brought by the DOJ.

Chicken of the Sea’s potential settlement with the restaurants and catering companies, proposed Friday, 24 May, still must be approved by U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California Judge Janis L. Sammartino, who has not yet formally certified the grouping of affected companies involved in the agreement as an official class in the lawsuit. The parties suing claim to represent companies that indirectly purchased packages of tuna in 40-ounce sizes or greater from DOT Foods, Sysco, US Foods, Sam’s Club, Walmart, or Costco from June 2011 through December 2016.

Parties in the so-called “commercial food preparers” class involved in the proposed settlement include Capitol Hill Supermarket, Janet Machen, Thyme Cafe & Market, Simon-Hindi LLC, LesGo Personal Chef, Maquoketa Care Center, A-1 Diner, Francis T. Enterprises d/b/a Erbert & Gerbert’s, Harvesters Enterprises, LLC d/b/a Harvester’s Seafood and Steakhouse, Dutch Village Restaurant, Painted Plate Catering, GlowFisch Hospitality d/b/a Five Loaves Cafe, Rushin Gold LLC d/b/a The Gold Rush, Erbert & Gerbert, Inc., Groucho’s Deli of Raleigh, Sandee’ s Catering, Groucho ‘s Deli of Five Points, and Confetti’s Ice Cream Shoppe.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

SeaWeb Seafood Summit conference program puts focus on social and human rights challenges

April 26, 2019 — Representatives from Walmart, Anova Food, Thai Union, and North Atlantic/Bali Seafood International will be featured speakers at the 2019 SeaWeb Seafood Summit, which will have a major focus on social and human rights challenges in seafood supply chains.

The summit, taking place 10 to 14 June in Bangkok, Thailand, will involve many of the leading voices in the seafood sustainability movement in Asia and globally. Companies taking part in the event will discuss ways they’ve created stronger relationships with supply chain partners and workers, reduced their exposure to risk, and produced a better product to sell through the adoption of sustainability measures in their respective businesses.

The conference’s keynote speaker will be Fair Trade USA CEO Paul Rice, an advocate of “impact sourcing” as a core strategy for both poverty alleviation and sustainable business. Rice is the author of “The Human Face of Sustainability: Empowering Fishers, Farmers, and Workers.” Rice will also serve on a panel with Richard Welford, the founder and chairman of CSR Asia, Walmart Senior Buying Manager Trevyr Lester, and Sarah Hogan, the program officer for the Packard Foundation’s Global Seafood Markets strategy, to discuss successful examples from seafood and other industries of sustainable supply chains. The panelists will share their experiences in using market forces to drive positive impacts on workers, communities, resources, and corporate profits, according to Diversified Communications, which operates the summit. (Editor’s note: Diversified Communications also operates SeafoodSource).

Another featured panel at the summit will investigate the economics of sustainable seafood in Asia, sustainability trends in other Asian markets, and how sustainable practices might come to be better recognized in Asian markets in the future. The panel will include Janice Lao, director of group corporate responsibility and sustainability at The Hongkong & Shanghai Hotels Limited; Rabobank’s Umesh Madhavan; Nobukazu Furuya with AEON TopValu Thailand; Wakao Hanaoka from Seafood Legacy; and Julie Qiu, the marketing director for Australis Aquaculture.

A separate plenary session will look into illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing in Asia, and will include Environmental Justice Foundation Co-Founder Steve Trent and Adisorn Promthep, the Director-General of Thaland’s Department of Fisheries. Trent and Promthep will discuss transparency initiatives and how they can be applied in the real-world, studying examples from Thailand and Indonesia.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Chicken of the Sea, Monterey Bay partnership yields first product offering

January 21, 2019 — Thai Union’s Chicken of the Sea Frozen Foods (COSFF) and the Monterey Bay Aquarium have announced the first new product offering produced as part of the duo’s collaboration, which began last May.

The partnership’s SeaChange IGNITE program announced that it has upgraded the rating of Sri Lankan blue swimming crab to a “good alternative” recommendation. The species had previously been part of a fishery improvement project (FIP) aimed at improving the sustainability of the region’s fishing practices.

The SeaChange Ignite program was co-created by Chicken of the Sea and Monterey Bay to promote improvements throughout the supply chain as part of Thai Union’s sustainability initiative. There has been a commitment of $73 million towards the program, providing funding to 2025, with improvements in South-East Asia the primary focus.

Meanwhile, COSFF had initially joined the blue swimming crab FIP in July 2016, alongside its partner Taprobane Seafood Group. COSFF had, at the time, co-financed a harvest control strategy for the region’s crab fisheries.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Walmart resolves anti-trust lawsuit against Chicken of the Sea

May 23, 2018 — Walmart has reached an agreement with Thai Union’s Chicken of the Sea International regarding antitrust claims initially brought forth by the retailer back in October 2016, and later amended in May of 2017.

The terms of the agreement will see Tri-Union Seafoods – which trades as Chicken of the Sea International – pay a cash settlement to Walmart and partner with the retail giant in a series of joint programs and new product promotions. New product innovations will also be launched and featured across Walmart stores in the United States as a result of the agreement, Chicken of the Sea said in a press release.

Groups of American wholesalers, retailers, and foodservice outfits began filing lawsuits in 2015 alleging that the three biggest providers of canned tuna in the United States – Tri-Union Seafoods, StarKist, and Bumble Bee – had conspired to “fix, raise, maintain, and/or stabilize prices for PSPs [packaged seafood products]” in the country. The series of lawsuits, as well as Thai Union’s failed bid to purchase Bumble Bee in 2015, spurred the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to launch its own criminal antitrust investigation, examining claims that the three companies had colluded to increase prices for packaged tuna from 2008-2010, until at least July 2015.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

 

Big seafood companies promise to reduce illegal fishing

December 15, 2016 — Eight of the world’s largest seafood companies have promised for the first time to improve transparency and the traceability of their catches to stop illegal fishing and protect the oceans, they said on Wednesday.

After a meeting organized by the Stockholm Resilience Centre (SRC) between seafood companies’ chief executives and scientists, the CEOs signed an agreement on ocean stewardship.

“The seafood industry cannot thrive on an unsustainable planet, and we will not have a thriving planet with an unsustainable seafood industry,” the eight companies said in a joint statement.

The companies promised to help reduce illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU) and seek to ensure that such products and endangered species are not present in their supply chains.

The companies also promised to eliminate any form of modern slavery including forced and child labor in their supply chains, and to reduce the use of antibiotics in aquaculture.

The seafood companies include the two largest by revenues, Maruha Nichiro and Nippon Suisan Kaisha; two of the largest tuna companies, Thai Union and Dongwon Industries; the two largest salmon farmers, Marine Harvest ASA and Cermaq; and the two largest aquafeed companies, Nutreco unit Skretting and Cargill Aqua Nutrition.

Read the full story at Reuters