Correspondence
Email sent to the press office of Garant's parent company, Axfoods.
The email said: "We’re writing to you in light of our latest investigation, which concerns abuses in the Chinese squid fishing and seafood processing industry, and a link we’ve discovered between companies engaged in abuses and a supplier in your supply chain. According to our research, Nordic Seafood has supplied Garant’s own-brand squid.
Documentation produced by Nordic Seafood in 2022 shows that the company has been supplied squid from a Chinese processor called Rongcheng Xinhui Aquatic Products Co. Ltd. We have visual evidence of Rongcheng Xinhui receiving squid catch from a Chinese squid jigger called the Zhen Fa 7. In a seven-month period, one Zhen Fa 7 crew member died and a second was disembarked for emergency medical treatment after suffering serious mistreatment and abuse while on board the vessel.
Our reporting documents multiple indicators of forced labor among crew onboard the vessel: recruitment linked to debt, deceptive recruitment, enforced isolation, degrading living conditions, physical violence, wage withholding, the retention of personal identity documents and strong financial penalties for leaving employment.
Our investigation further shows that Nordic Seafoods’ French and UK subsidiaries have been supplied by at least two other Chinese squid processors supplied by vessels engaged in human rights abuses and Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing; and at least three processors tied to forced labor affecting Xinjiang ethnic minorities. Nordic Seafoods is owned by Nissui Corporation, which operates other US, French, and Danish subsidiaries heavily implicated in our investigation. Further details about these findings are available on request.
While we recognize that you may not be aware of the problem, we wish to ask you if Garant has any comment or clarification to make in response to the above information? Please let us know by close of business September 25, 2023, noting that all interactions are on record."
Kristina Areskog Bjurling, Sustainability Manager, replied with a statement regarding Garant's supply chain: "First, thanks for the research efforts you have put into this extremely important question. At Dagab (a part of Axfood) we see the eradication of forced labour as one of our top priorities and we are well aware that some of the most severe forced labour conditions exist within the global fishing industry. Because of that we have had an active Fish and seafood-policy since 2008 and we have done sustainability assessments of all products with the content over 5 % from amfori BSCI risk-countries (like China) since 2015. For the Garant squid we succeeded in getting MSC-certification from 2020 to better secure the controlled and traceable fishing. MSC have had some conditions around working conditions since 2014, and stronger such since 2022, something that Dagab was one of the advocates for. Since 2014 we have requested Nordic Seafood to closely monitor that our Code of Conduct is followed in China, through both requiring them to conduct environmental and social due diligence of the full value chain as well as showing social required evidence in the form of a social audit or social certification (like amfori BSCI, SA8000 or SMETA) on the processor-level. Since 2019 they have sourced to us from Yantai Tedfood Co in Shandong province and regularly sent us valid SMETA-audits. The last audit report from March 2023 is a 4-pillar SMETA and shows no signs of forced labour with any of the unacceptable labour programs for Uyghurs that you refer to. The information from you that there might be risk that the forced labour programs affecting Xinjiang ethnic minorities in Chinese fish industry means that we will strengthen our due diligence process further. Our Garant MSC illex squid rings are supplied to us from Yantai Tedfoods Co via Nordic Seafood. MSC illex is only caught in US waters by US vessels, no Chinese vessels are involved. The violations of human rights mentioned in your letter is upsetting and we really hope that all stakeholders sourcing from these supply chains will be involved in a process to remediate the victims. From the information we have today we believe that Dagab is not one of these actors. If it is confirmed that our supplier Nordic seafood in any other way is connected to the violations, through any owner or subsidiary, we will act diligent to promote correct remediation. You stated that you have other information concerning the possible connections to Human rights infringements of Nissui Corporation and their subsidiaries. Please send this information to us so we can take this forward and try to assist in any way."