Correspondence
Email sent to the main contact address at Nordic Seafood.
The email said: "I’m 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.
Nordic Seafood 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.
Trade records also indicate that Nordic Seafoods in France has imported from a Chinese processor called Qingdao Tianyuan Aquatic as recently as January 2023. Qingdao Tianyuan has received persons from the Xinjiang region of China under a 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 programs which use coercive methods in worker enrollment. The U.S. has prohibited the importation of goods produced from state-imposed forced labor.
Nordic Seafoods in the U.K., meanwhile, has received squid from the state-owned Zhoushan Marine Fisheries Corporation as recently as March 2023. Our research indicates that at least nine vessels owned by the company fished in Russian waters between July 2022 and February 2023, and three vessels owned by the company have been the subject of complaints from at least six former crewmembers that matched International Labor Organisation forced labor indicators including: abuse of vulnerability, deception, withholding of wages, and abusive working and living conditions. Several other vessels have a history of activity indicating possible IUU infractions, including broadcasting multiple MMSI numbers and AIS disabling on the borders of exclusive economic zones in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans.
Finally, Nordic Seafoods in France has also imported pink or chum salmon from a company called Dalian Rich. Dalian Rich signed a distribution agreement with a Xinjiang aquaculture company called Xinjiang Tianyun Organic Agriculture in September 2022. Has Nordic Seafoods received any assurances that the salmon it is importing from Dalian Rich has not been handled, processed, or packaged by Uyghur or other ethnic minority laborers from the Xinjiang province?
Does Nordic Seafood have any comment or clarification to make in response to the above information? Please let me know by close of business August 4, 2023."
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed Nordic Seafood: "I contacted you earlier this month regarding our investigation into abuses in China’s squid fishing and seafood processing industry, and am emailing today as we have additional findings to raise with you.
Trade records show that Nordic Seafood imported squid from a processor called Rizhao Jiayuan Foodstuff in 2019. This company has received Xinjiang labor, including Uyghurs, under the transfer program discussed in my previous email, since 2019 and until at least October 2022. According to our research, Nordic Seafood supplies squid to: K Group’s own-brand range, Pirkka Parhaat; ICA’s own-brand calamari and mixed seafood; Garant’s own-brand range; and to the Swedish foodservice operator Martin and Servera.
Can you clarify if the squid supplied by Nordic to K Group, ICA, Garant or Martin and Servera has included squid from Rizhao Jiayuan or the processors mentioned in my last email (Zhoushan Marine Fisheries Corporation, Rongcheng Xinhui Aquatic Products Co. Ltd.)?
Do you have any comment to make in response to the above information or to my email dated August 1, 2023? Please let me know by close of business on August 11, 2023."