August 23, 2021 — China’s seafood importers could be looking at price rises due to port congestion and higher freight costs, according to a Siam Canadian executive.
Most Chinese processors are renegotiating their contracted prices due to rising costs for raw materials and freight, according to Landy Chow, the general manager of Bangkok, Thailand-based seafood trader Siam Canadian Group’s Guangzhou office.
May 4, 2021 — Thai Union has announced its participation in the Ocean Disclosure Project, a global initiative where seafood businesses publicly share details on the sourcing of their seafood.
In a statement, Thai Union said its involvement is part of its efforts to realize its global sustainability strategy, SeaChange, as well as traceability and transparency commitments in its business operations.
April 26, 2021 — About 100 miles off the coast of Thailand, three dozen Cambodian boys and men worked barefoot all day and into the night on the deck of a purse seiner fishing ship. Fifteen-foot swells climbed the sides of the vessel, clipping the crew below the knees. Ocean spray and fish innards made the floor skating-rink slippery.
Seesawing erratically from the rough seas and gale winds, the deck was an obstacle course of jagged tackle, spinning winches and tall stacks of 500-pound nets. Rain or shine, shifts ran 18 to 20 hours. At night, the crew cast their nets when the small silver fish they target — mostly jack mackerel and herring — were more reflective and easier to spot in darker waters.
This was a brutal place, one that I’ve spent the past several years exploring. Fishing boats on the South China Sea, especially in the Thai fleet, had for years been notorious for using so-called sea slaves, mostly migrants forced offshore by debt or duress.
Two-thirds of the planet is covered by water and much of that space is ungoverned. Human rights, labor and environmental crimes occur often and with impunity because the oceans are vast. What laws exist are difficult to enforce.
Arguably the most important factor, though, is that the global public is woefully unaware of what happens offshore. Reporting about and from this realm is rare. As a result, landlubbers have little idea of how reliant they are on the sea or the more than 50 million people who work out there.
April 1, 2021 — The Thailand Department of Labor Protection and Welfare is partnering with seafood industry groups on an effort to eliminate the use of forced labor in the sector.
On 29 March, the Thai government signed non-binding memoranda of understanding with several industry associations, under which the companies will make public their policies to combat forced and child labor, establish mechanisms to deal with complaints, and undergo audits on the quality and effectiveness of their labor standards.
March 3, 2021 — Thai Union has committed to full transparency in its international tuna supply chain by 2025.
The Bangkok, Thailand-based seafood company, which notched more than USD 4.1 billion (EUR 3.3 billion) in revenue in 2019, signed a partnership with The Nature Conservancy on Wednesday, 3 March, committing to full supply-chain transparency across its global tuna supply chains.
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).
January 22, 2021 — A severe shortage of shipping containers is leading to rising shipping costs and difficulty moving goods, playing havoc with seafood exporters in Asia.
The shortage has been felt by all major exporters in Vietnam, Thailand, China, and India. Data from Vietnamese seafood exporters show that the shipping cost to the European Union rose between 145 percent and 276 percent in January, compared to December last year.
December 21, 2020 — Thai Union announced on Monday, 21 December, that one of its employees in Samut Sakhon has tested positive for the coronavirus, amid a resurgence of infections in the Thai province.
The seafood processing hub, located west of Bangkok capital, had seen no infection for 250 days before first case was detected last week.
November 9, 2020 — The Gulf of Thailand’s mixed trawl fishery has become the first fishery improvement program (FIP) in the world adopted to the MarinTrust Improver Program, CP Foods said in a statement on 4 November.
The decision was made during a meeting of the MarinTrust governing body committee in October.
October 22, 2020 — Fisheries officials from the European Union, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, and the United States have met to discuss cooperation on limiting the use of flags of convenience by distant-water fishery companies involved in illegal fishing.
The online meeting, which took place 15 October, follows a report by the advocacy group Environmental Justice Foundation criticizing the process whereby fishing companies buy flags from flag states, which are then unwilling or unable to monitor the activity of problem trawlers. The report, “Off the Hook: How Flags of Convenience Let Illegal Fishing Go Unpunished,” details the damage that flags of convenience cause to fisheries and how they are used to conduct illegal fishing. In the report, EJF calls for sanctions to end the practice and more transparency surrounding the registration of fishing vessels.