Correspondence
Email sent to two contact addresses for Congalsa.
The email said: "We’re contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s seafood processing industry, specifically North Korean workers in Chinese plants. We have investigators on the ground in China who have been engaging with labor brokers directly involved with the transfer of North Korean workers to factories in China. Through this and other investigative means, including collecting online footage from the plants and interviews with workers recently returned to North Korea from China, we’ve found large numbers of North Korean workers at a range of seafood processing plants in Liaoning province, on China’s border with North Korea.
We have information that as recently as December 2023, there were 50-70 workers at Dalian Haiqing Food Co. Ltd. in Liaoning.
According to trade records seen by The Outlaw Ocean Project, Congalsa was the consignee for shipments of seafood from Dalian Haiqing between September 2021 and August 2022.
The use of overseas North Korean workers was prohibited by the United Nations Security Council in 2017, with Resolution 2397 setting a deadline of December 2019 for the repatriation of all such workers to North Korea. Under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), passed in 2017, the United States prohibits the import of any goods produced by North Korean nationals unless clear and convincing evidence is provided that indicates the materials were not made with forced labor.
In light of the above, we have some questions for Congalsa: 1. While we understand that you may not be aware of the above issues, we want to ask if Congalsa has any comment to make in response to this email? 2. Can you confirm or deny if Congalsa has supplied any products from Dalian Haiqing to Dia or Mercadona?"
The Outlaw Ocean Project's publishing partner El Pais emailed Congalsa, repeating the questions posed in The Outlaw Ocean Project's email of January 29, 2024.
Congalsa replied to The Outlaw Ocean Project's publishing partner El Pais: "Thank you very much for your email. To date we have not received any prior communication from your newspaper.
We had been working with this supplier for 5 years, and as established by our procedures, we had made commercial visits to their facilities, visits by our own staff in China, audits by our Quality Control team, not evidencing any bad practice on the part of the supplier.
We were aware of alleged irregular practices by the supplier mentioned barely two weeks ago, specifically on 02/12/24. At that time, we initiated an internal investigation and requested information from the supplier, who denies the accusations and even sent us CSR audit reports from independent international organizations.
However, we decided to inform the supplier of our intention to interrupt our commercial relations on a precautionary basis.
At Congalsa, we have been committed for years to promoting sustainability (social, economic and environmental) not only internally, but also transferring this commitment to our entire value chain (especially to our suppliers).
We are especially careful with the selection of companies that supply us with raw materials in emerging and Asian markets, within our purchasing policy. In the case of China, we work with several suppliers and all of them have committed to us by signing good corporate practice protocols.
Regarding the question, we confirm that a small part of the imported merchandise went to Mercadona. Both Mercadona and Congalsa have strict policies regarding legal compliance, which is why we decided jointly and in light of the information that appeared, to cancel any type of commercial relationship with this supplier.
We inform you that none of these merchandise have been destined for DIA.
The rest of the imported products have been destined to serve our hospitality market.
In view of these events, we have also decided to strengthen our internal and external audit policies.
For Congalsa this is a matter of capital importance, do not hesitate to let us know if we can do anything to collaborate with you.
Thank you so much"