Thai Union Frozen Products, the country’s largest shrimp processor and second largest in feed, states it plans to cut all wild fish from its shrimp feed by 2020, on the same day Carrefour stated it will stop buying from Charoen Pokphand Foods.

After an article from UK paper the Guardian linked CP Foods to slavery on vessels that supply fish to feed factories in its supply chain, Thai Union has come out and made a statement on its plans on feed.

“With a commitment to protect the environment and prevent the labor rights abuses in its supply chain, Thai Union’s R&D team is working on the shrimp feed formulae with an aim to progressively become less dependent on the fishmeal sourced from captured fisheries,” said a statement from the company.

“By 2020, the group targets at 100% that its shrimp feed is completely free of wild-caught fish,” it continued.

A Thai Union spokeswoman told Undercurrent News the company is already selling ‘D-Grow’, a commercial brand under Thai Union Feedmill, containing zero fishmeal from the sea.

On May 21, Wit Soontaranun, the company’s sustainability director, told Undercurrent Thai Union is working on improving the formulae of its shrimp feed made from tuna plant byproducts instead of wild catch fish.

The Thai firm, which is the world’s largest tuna canner, already sends 100% of the by-products from its tuna plants for use in sustainable shrimp feed.

However, improving the formula with a view to gaining certification for the feed is now a focus for the company’s R&D department.

“One way to help [with the sustainability of shrimp feed issue] is to reduce fishing pressure in the Gulf,” Soontaranun told Undercurrent, at the time.

In the statement issued Friday, as CP Foods also issued a strong response to the Guardian article, Thai Union restated “its ethical business sourcing policy prohibits any form of forced labor, child labor or exploitation of human rights and is working uncompromisingly to comply with the international standards to prevent human rights violation of any kind”.

Its suppliers have been made known and had taken cooperative efforts in assuring that there is no human trafficking in their chains of business conduct, the company said.

“We have made it very clear that any misconduct in relation to human trafficking found will result in a serious consequence to suspend such trade relationship with no compromise. We proactively work with relevant stakeholders to ensure necessary actions are taken by creating constructive dialogues and strong co-operations that contribute to significant improvement of the human rights practices throughout our supply and distribution chains,” said Thiraphong Chansiri, Thai Union president and CEO.

Thai Union “customers and consumers worldwide can rest assured that it strictly sources high quality premium grade shrimp feed of which hygiene and freshness are utmost important. Additionally, the procurement team conducts regular inspections with all fishmeal suppliers not only at their processing facilities but also at the ports where raw materials are secured”, the company said.

Thai Union has been giving “its full support” to Thailand Trade Associations, Government officials, NGOs and other key stakeholders in order to play a part in tackling this serious issues in the Thai fishing industry, the company said.

Additionally, specific concern on Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report rating by the US Department of States on Thailand is also intensifying.

“Thailand’s industry associations have been jointly working extremely hard as ‘Thailand Team’ in order to tackle and improve the good labor practices in the fishing industry since 2010 and it has shown a significant standard improvement to date,” Chansiri   said.

“Regardless of TIP report, Thai Union Group holds consistent values in respect to promoting good labor practices. Our commitment to internationally accepted code of conducts such as Ethical Trade Initiative (ETI) are in compliance with all human rights clauses,” he said.

“We know for the fact that TIP report does not have any direct mandatory implication on the business relationship with our business partners. However, we will continue to work with our business partners and key stakeholders in making sure that not only our business operations are in compliance but all our suppliers’ must be free from human trafficking and human rights violations, which we would never tolerate in any cases,” said Chansiri.

By Tom Seaman

Published on 13 June 2014