Consumer demand has fed exponential growth in the global tuna industry over the past few decades in terms of both sales and production. But consumers' focus these days has shifted increasingly to concern about the environmental and human rights implications of the food they consume. For tuna companies, eliminating potential abuses across their supply chain has become an urgent challenge.
As the world's largest producer of canned tuna, Thai Union Group Plc (TU) is facing more pressure than ever, especially in light of the evidence linking Thailand with some of the world's worst illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices, human trafficking and child labour.
In a recent report by Greenpeace entitled "Not Just Tuna" (http://tuna.greenpeace.org/en/), TU is accused of not taking the necessary steps to date "to ensure its tuna products are supplied by vessels free of forced labour". It features interviews with survivors of trafficking and forced labour in Indonesia who faced abuse and food deprivation on Thai-operated fishing vessels that are allegedly linked with TU (or TU as the Greenpeace report refers to it).
Greenpeace has also published a separate report (http://bit.ly/1LiSAlO) ranking all brands of canned tuna sold in Thailand, including those of TU, based on sustainability, labour standards and other factors. TU products ranked near the bottom.
Greenpeace Southeast Asia has called on TU to address labour issues throughout its seafood supply chain by ending purchases from any vessels transshipping at sea, ensuring the traceability of all products back to the ship, and increasing transparency throughout its operation.
The Greenpeace statement notes that less than 4% of TU's tuna is sourced from Thailand with the rest comes from outside the country. Without its own fleet, the company uses 610,000 tonnes of tuna a year.
TU disputes the claims about transshipment as well as other allegations and has published a response (http://bit.ly/1WVt7Py) on its website, where its annual sustainability reports can also be downloaded.
President and chief executive Thiraphong Chansiri conceded that the company's actions to address child labour and human trafficking so far had been concentrated in Thailand as the country, its government and fishery industry have been accused of not doing enough to stop such practices.
Such practices of large-scale ships operating outside Thailand are scrutinised by regional and international bodies such as the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF), he said in an interview with Asia Focus.
Since November 2014, the company has terminated contracts with trade suppliers and fishing vessels for both tuna and groundfish highlighted in a previous Greenpeace report, he noted.
Meanwhile, it only sources tuna from vessels registered with regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) that strictly ban all vessels engaged in transshipment at sea. The only exception is for small vessels where there is an approved independent observer on board to monitor and record fishing operations.
"It is not fair to us that NGOs used old information to attack the company," Mr Thiraphong said. "At the same time, they should coordinate with companies that operate fishing fleets and also the police to track down those operated illegally."
A Greenpeace member distributes information to a passerby outside the Liverpool headquarters of John West, a TUF affiliate, during a "Not Just Tuna" event held on Oct 28.
In its response to the latest Greenpeace report, TU also said that it took the issue of any human rights violation seriously and strictly prohibited any form of human rights exploitation to comply with international standards.
"We completely disagree with Greenpeace incorrectly stating that our transshipment-ban policy only covers raw materials sourced from Thai waters," it said. "Our policy applies to international transactions for tuna as well as those transactions in Thai waters.
"Our global tuna supply chain is audited annually by an independent third party through the ISSF. The ISSF Participating Company Compliance Audit checklist details our compliance with standards on IUU fishing, traceability, shark finning, transshipment, skipper training in best practices, and independent observer coverage."
TU says it will also conclude internal audits for all Thai-caught seafood including tuna and other species by the end of 2015 and next year will begin conducting third-party audits.
Mr Thiraphong noted that the company had been working with NGOs including the Labour Rights Protection Network (LPN), Project Issara, and the Migrant Workers Rights Network (MWRN) on issues related to proper treatment of the workforce. It also operates two childcare centres in Samut Sakhon, where its major production facilities are located, with a target to expand to five locations next year.
With sales approaching US$5 billion this year, TU controls many of the world's best known canned seafood brands including Chicken of the Sea, Petit Navire, John West, Century Tuna, Sealect and Mareblu. However, the status of its biggest deal to date -- the $1.5 billion acquisition of Bumble Bee, the largest canned tuna brand in the United States -- remains in question.
The US Department of Justice is currently conducting an antitrust investigation of the US packaged seafood industry, including TU brands, and the company in July suspended a share offering intended to finance the Bumble Bee acquisition. Under the original agreement, it has until Dec 18 to decide whether to go ahead with the deal.
PACIFIC FLEET PROBLEMS
According to Greenpeace, global demand for cheap seafood is among the key drivers of both environmental degradation and human rights abuses in the fishing industry. During the past six decades, annual global production of tuna and similar species has surged 1,100% to 7 million tonnes, due mainly to demand in Europe, North America and Japan.
Human rights abuses in the Pacific tuna fleet, which supplies around 70% of global demand, are serious and require urgent attention, it has said. Exploitation of workers in the fishing sector is a growing concern globally, particularly in light of multiple high-profile exposes focusing on Southeast Asia in recent years.
"Human rights abuses in the fishing sector are a global problem occurring across the world and one that is often connected to other forms of criminal activities, including IUU fishing," said the report. "Global producers, buyers and retailers of seafood wield a purchasing power that can push changes throughout conduct supply chains, ensuring that suppliers adhere to rigorous standards to uphold the rights of the workers who catch, process and package our seafood."
The report also noted that while TU is not the only seafood company that has to deal with human rights abuses in its supply chain, it is in an unrivalled position to drive positive changes.
"TU's reach goes from sea to shelf as it brands dominate the world's major tuna markets. The company is a keystone actor in marine ecosystems, responsible for a disproportionately large impact on our ocean," the Greenpeace report said. "As a major global producer and heavyweight corporate actor, TU also wields a significant amount of influence over the conditions of work throughout its entire supply chain."
Although TU has taken action to drop suppliers implicated in abuse and introduced a new labour code of conduct this year, the burden is still on the company to demonstrate to customers that it has taken effective steps to ensure that its seafood supply chain is free of exploitation, all the way down the fishing boats, the report added.
REGULATORY FAILURES
Nonetheless, Greenpeace acknowledged that businesses alone are not entirely to blame for abuses as existing laws and relevant authorities have also failed to regulate the sector effectively.
"Fundamentally, exploitation flourishes in the Thai fishing industry because of inadequate regulatory frameworks, poor due diligence and weak monitoring control, surveillance and enforcement systems by coastal, flag, and port states," it noted.
Human rights abuses are also driven by an array of other factors, it added. The Thai fishing industry is structurally dependent on unskilled workers, a result of a failure to invest in technology to increase labour productivity as well as an abundance of cheap migrant workers from the less-developed neighbours.
At the same time, vessel operators face a chronic shortage of workers -- a deficit estimated by the National Fishing Association of Thailand (NFAT) to be as high as 50,000.
"Combined with economic pressure arising from the degradation of marine resources in the Thai exclusive economic zone (EEZ), these factors shape the prevalence of labour abuses and the use of trafficking, forced and bonded labour in the Thai fishing industry."
As migrant workers from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos and undeveloped rural regions of Thailand, particularly the Northeast, are trafficked through Indonesia, both countries must collaborate further to address abuses, said Mark Dia, Greenpeace's Regional Oceans Campaign coordinator for Southeast Asia.
Greenpeace has worked with the Indonesian government on the matter while the Thai military government has already taken action to address chronic problems facing the fishing industry for many years, said Mr Dia.
The Thai cabinet recently approved a series of measures to deal with the IUU fishing as the country struggles to meet a December deadline set by the European Union to clamp down on illegal fishing. Failure to meet the deadline could result in damaging trade sanctions from the EU which consumes up to 30 billion baht worth of Thai exports annually.
