Correspondence
Email sent to Scott Golden, External Communications and Community Engagement Leader at Performance Food Group. January 17, 2023: A letter with the same text as the email dated January 10 was sent by certified mail.
The email said: "I’m writing to you in light of our latest investigation, which concerns abuses in the Chinese squid fishing industry, and a link we’ve discovered between companies engaged in abuses and your supply chain.
This link concerns a Chinese squid jigger owned by the Chinese fishery company, Rongcheng Wangdao Ocean Aquatic Products. In a seven-month period, one 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 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.
We have traced squid caught by that vessel to a large Chinese fisheries company in Shandong province called the Chishan Group. Further to its connections to the Zhen Fa 7 vessel, ships owned by the Chishan Group were found fishing in North Korean waters in violation of UN sanctions in 2017 and 2018. Chishan’s processing plants supply squid products to The Town Dock, Lund’s Fisheries and Ruggiero’s Seafood Inc, all of whom supply Performance Food Group. Performance Food Group has a distribution agreement to supply over 670 Red Lobster restaurants in the United States.
Does Performance Food Group have any comment or statement to make on the record in response to this information?"
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed: "I’m following up my email dated January 10, 2023, with additional details we have uncovered in our investigation into the Chinese squid fishing fleet and links between abuses in that industry and Performance Food Group’s supply chain.
Performance Food Group sells Pacific Ranch squid by Cal Ranch. Since 2018, Cal Ranch has imported at least four shipments of squid from the Chinese company, Rongcheng Xinhui Aquatic Products Co. Ltd. We have visual evidence of Xinhui receiving bags of squid from the Zhen Fa 7, the vessel we cited in our previous correspondence.
To recap: Our investigation has found that 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. We have documented 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.
In light of the above, does Performance Food Group have any comment to make on the record? Can you confirm if squid sourced through Chinese processors referenced here and in our previous correspondence is provided to Red Lobster under your distribution agreement? Please respond to this email by close of business March 20, 2023."