Correspondence
Email sent to Chris Baird, Commercial Director at Northcoast Seafoods, via the company's contact address.
The email said: "I’m contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s food processing industry, and a link we’ve discovered between companies engaged in such practices and your parent company, Seafood Connection.
Seafood Connection’s suppliers Shandong Haidu Ocean Product Co. Ltd. and Yantai Sanko Fisheries Co. Ltd. have received persons from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China under the 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, and obstruct freedom to leave employment.
Has Northcoast Seafoods received any products, directly or indirectly, from Shandong Haidu or Yantai Sanko? Does Northcoast Seafood have any comment to make in response to the above information? Please reply to this email by close of business on June 27, 2023."