Correspondence
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed three contact addresses for Krustagroup.
The email said: "We’re contacting you in light of our research on the practice of ‘flagging in’, whereby fishing vessels owned by companies in one country are flagged to another country in order to access that second country’s waters. We are not indicating explicitly or implicitly that flagging-in is illegal, we are just taking a look at the issue of flagging-in globally.
Trade data shows that Krustagroup S.A.U. was the consignee for shipments of seafood from the Argentine company Arbumasa in 2021 and 2022. Records indicate that Arbumasa runs a fleet of at least nine vessels, several of which catch shrimp within Argentinian waters. According to information published on its website, Arbumasa is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Chinese company, Dalian Huafeng Aquatic Products.
While we understand that you might not be aware of the above, does Krustagroup have any comment in response to this email? If so, please let us know by close of business on July 19, 2024, noting that all interactions remain on record."
The marketing team at Krustagroup replied: "Arbumasa, one of our companies inside of our Amasua Group, was taken over by Chinese company Dalian Huafeng Aquatic Products following the settlement of a purchase agreement in 2017. The operation included the processing plant with a cold store chamber located in Puerto Deseado, Santa Cruz (Argentina), and the fleet composed of ten vessels, eight shrimp boats and two jiggers operating on squid. That is all we can add."