Correspondence
Email sent to the contact address for H Mart. 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 were 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. Hmart stocks squid products supplied by Grand BK under its trademarked label Tong Tong Bay. Does Hmart have any comment or statement to make on the record in response to this information?"