Dive Brief:
- Shrimp linked to shrimp peeling sheds that employ enslaved adults and children is allegedly being used by around 40 U.S. brands and sold at more than 150 stores, including Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, according to the Associated Press.
- The sheds, which belong to the Gig Peeling Factory, were traced back to major Thai exporting companies, including Thai Union Group, which supplies Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, the Associated Press found.
- Thai Union, which also owns the brand Chicken of the Sea, said that the company would cease sourcing shrimp from all external pre-processors and perform all peeling and cleaning work in-house by Dec. 31. "The abuse of human rights must not be tolerated," Thiraphong Chansiri, president and CEO of Thai Union, said in a statement.
Dive Insight:
Whole Foods has reportedly investigated its own supply chain and told Fortune that the retailer was "confident that Thai Union shrimp supplied to Whole Foods Market did not come from an illicit processing facility, nor do we purchase any shrimp from peeling shed facilities."
Wal-Mart is currently investigating the matter. "We are aware of the Associated Press story, and we were horrified by the conditions and treatment of workers the reporters uncovered," a Wal-Mart spokesperson told Fortune.
This is not the only report that has brought to light questionable labor practices by Thai seafood suppliers. Last month, Nestle released the findings of a yearlong investigation into the Thai seafood arm of its supply chain after reports of alleged labor abuses and a related lawsuit brought against the company in August.
A lawsuit was also filed against Costco in August that alleged that the retailer had been selling prawns from CP Foods, which was "buying fishmeal, which it feeds to its farmed prawns, from some suppliers that owned, were operating or buying from fishing boats manned with slaves," The Guardian reported.
Thailand delivers close to half of its shrimp supply to the U.S.