Correspondence
Email sent to Brian Kwon, CEO of Grand BK Corporation. January 17, 2023: A letter with the same text as the email dated January 10 was sent by certified mail.
The email said: "I’m writing to you in light of our latest investigation, which concerns abuses in the Chinese squid fishing industry, and a link we’ve discovered between companies engaged in abuses and your supply chain.
This link concerns a Chinese squid jigger owned by the Chinese fishery company, Rongcheng Wangdao Ocean Aquatic Products. In a seven-month period, one 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.
We have traced squid caught by that vessel to a large Chinese fisheries company in Shandong province called the Chishan Group. One of Chishan’s processing plants, Rongcheng Haibo Seafood Co. Ltd., exports squid to Grand BK Corporation. Squid caught by that ship was also transshipped to large refrigerated vessels called the Hai Feng 678 and Hai Feng 698, belonging to the state-owned China National Fisheries Corporation. Its subsidiary processor, Yantai New Ocean Aquatic Food Co. Ltd., supplies squid to Grand BK Corporation.
Does Grand BK Corporation have any comment or statement to make on the record in response to this information?"
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed: "I wrote to you earlier this year regarding The Outlaw Ocean Project’s investigation into abuses in the Chinese squid fishing industry as it related to your supply chain. I am contacting you again in light of new findings made as part of our ongoing reporting, which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s food processing industry.
Grand BK’s suppliers Rizhao Meijia Aquatic Foodstuff Co. Ltd. and Rizhao Meijia Keyuan Foods Co. Ltd. are Meijia Group companies. The Meijia Group and another of Grand BK’s suppliers, Rongcheng Haibo, have received persons from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China under the state-imposed labor transfer program.
The United Nations, human rights organizations and academic experts agree that since 2018, the Chinese government has systematically subjected Xinjiang’s predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities to forced labor across the country via state-sanctioned employment schemes which use coercive methods in worker enrollment, and obstruct freedom to leave employment. The U.S. has prohibited the importation of goods produced from state-imposed forced labor.
Does Grand BK have any comment or statement to make in light of the above information? Please respond to this email by close of business June 20, 2023."