Correspondence
Letter couriered from Shanghai to Rongcheng City Xinhui Aquatic and confirmed delivered.
The letter 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 Rongcheng Xinhui Aquatic Products Co. Ltd.
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 from that vessel to your company: Catch transshipped from the ship was landed at Shidao Port and then transported to Rongcheng Xinhui Aquatic Products Co. Ltd.
We have identified a list of other squid fishing vessels that are connected to instances of forced labor, violence, illegal fishing, and crew neglect. We’ve heard from multiple stakeholders at all levels of the squid industry - importers, exporters, ship owners, cold storage owners, processing companies - that there are many places where the catch can get comingled, which makes it extremely difficult for squid exporters to know with certainty that their products do not come from vessels involved in abuses. At the reefer level, after squid is caught by multiple ships, it can be comingled. At the docks level, it can get comingled as it comes off the ships. At the processing level, it can get comingled in the plant. There’s also the reality of collectives in China and conglomerates that often trade between each other.
Please let us know by Monday, January 23, 2023 if you have any comment or statement to make on the record in response to this information."