Correspondence
Email sent to the contact address for Les Aliments M&M
The email said: "I’m contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s fishing and seafood processing industries, and links we’ve discovered between companies engaged in such abuses and a company in your supply chain - Premier Marine Canada.
Trade records seen by The Outlaw Ocean Project show that, between 2019 and 2022, Premier Marine Canada was the consignee for at least seven shipments of seafood from processors in China that have received people from the Xinjiang region of China under a state imposed labor transfer program. The processors, Rizhao Meijia Aquatic and Rizhao Jiayuan, are both owned by the Meijia Group.
The Meijia Group has received persons from the Xinjiang region of China under a state-imposed labor transfer program since 2019 and until as recently as May 2023. We have uncovered evidence of Uyghur workers in Rizhao Jiayuan in 2019. Trade records also show that Premier Marine Canada was the consignee for seafood from Yantai Sanko Fisheries in 2019, a processor which has also received persons transferred from Xinjiang under a state-imposed program since 2019. We have found evidence of Uyghur workers in the plant as recently as April 2023.
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.
According to Premier Marine Canada’s official website, the company is a private label partner of Les Aliments M&M.
While we recognize that you may not be aware of this problem, we wish to ask you: Can you confirm or deny if any seafood sourced from Rizhao Meijia Aquatic has been used in any products sold by Les Aliments M&M since 2019? Does Les Aliments M&M have any comment or clarification to make in response to the above information? Please let us know by close of business on September 29, 2023, noting that interactions remain on record."