Correspondence
Email sent to the contact address for Pescados Castellon and marked for the attention of Fernando Ibañez Albalate, Manager.
The email said: "I’m writing to you in light of our latest investigation, which concerns China’s seafood industry, and a link we’ve discovered between companies engaged in abuses and your supply chain. A Chinese seafood processor called Shandong Shuangdu, a Chishan Group company, supplies ‘Seawork’ brand squid products to Inlet Seafish.
The Chishan Group has received multiple groups of workers from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China under the state-imposed labor transfer program, including as recently as 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.
Our investigation has also uncovered Chishan Group connections to ships engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Fishing vessels owned by the group have been observed fishing in North Korean waters in contravention of UN sanctions and fishing illegally in Indonesian waters. The group also owns at least two reefer vessels which have transshipped with dozens of fishing ships tied to illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing as well as human rights abuses. Inlet Seafish ‘Seawork’ squid products are sold by Pescados Castellon.
Does Pescados Castellon have any comment or statement to make in light of the above information? Please respond to this email by close of business May 16, 2023."