Correspondence
Email sent to the press office of ICA.
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 ICA’s own-brand calamari and mixed seafood products. 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 also 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 issues outlined above, we wish to ask if ICA 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."
Maria Elfvelin, Press Officer at ICA, replied: "This is new information for us and we take it very seriously. We have contacted our supplier and started a dialogue with them regarding your information."