Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) admitted that 'a minimal' part of the feedmeal sector may be involved in 'slavery' but ensured that 72% of its suppliers are certified following media accusations.

 

The Guardian newspaper accused CPF, a subsidiary of Thailand's largest agricultural conglomerate Charoen Pokphand Group, of buying fishmeal to feed farmed prawn from some suppliers that own, operate or buy from fishing boats that are said to use slave labour.

 

In its report the British newspaper pointed out that in addition to Walmart, Carrefour, Costco and Tesco, it has identified Aldi, Morrisons, the Co-operative and Iceland as customers of CPF and as frozen or cooked prawn sellers.

 

According to the Guardian's report, Thailand is considered a major source, transit and destination country for slavery, and nearly half a million people are believed to be currently enslaved within the country.

 

For his part, Aidan McQuade, director of Anti-Slavery International, claimed, "If you buy prawns or shrimp from Thailand, you will be buying the produce of slave labour."

 

In its defence, CPF explained that from factory to fishing boat each and every person who works for the firm, with the firm as a supplier or through any part of CPF's supply chain "must, as an absolute minimum be treated fairly and with dignity at all times."

 

The Thai company pointed out that to this end an auditing process is taking place in their entire operation so that they can denounce slavery across each and every aspect of their supply chain.

 

"As one of the largest purchasers of fishmeal in Thailand and as a leading manufacturer in the region, we have made a commitment to tighten the control of our fishmeal procurement - to clamp down on IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated] fishing, and drive improvement in fishing practices for the ultimate protection of Thailand's seas for generations to come," CPF stated in a release.

 

The firm also stressed that in April 2013 they had launched a programme to make the Gulf of Thailand Fisheries more sustainable and to help secure the livelihoods of the fishing communities for generations to come.

 

This programme covers the key environmental, social and economic aspects of IUU fishing of which tackling the alleged human rights abuses on Thai fishing vessels forms just part of the programme.

 

In addition, the Thai firm stated that when the Guardian initially contacted them asking questions about their general sustainability plans, they decided to engage with them.

 

"As a responsible newspaper we hoped they would help us to raise necessary awareness of the work we are doing – particularly the fishery improvement plans proposed by SPF (Shrimp Improvement Systems LLC] and WWF," the CPF's report stated.

 

It concluded, "The Guardian could help by telling the story in context with reference to the work CPF are doing but if they continue down a route of simply targeting the retailers with slavery allegations as they appear to have done, it will potentially make our task more difficult. It's an industry wide issue."

 

Source: www.fis.com