International & Trade

SEAFOODNEWS.COM by John Sackton — June 23, 2014 — Representatives of the Thai Frozen Foods Assoc. will come to the U.S. very soon for a week to meet with NFI, Walmart, Costco, and with other US retailers, regarding purchases of Thai shrimp.

Most retailers, and the TFFA, will discuss what types of 3rd party audits might be acceptable, and whether to use the International Labor Organization.  As Thai shrimp companies have been some of the most vocal proponents of action in Thailand, many retailers will continue their purchasing.  Overall little market impact is expected from the US State Dept. downgrade of Thailand, as a lot of preparatory work has been done.
 
Poj Aramwattananont, president of the association, said that food manufacturers are highly sensitive to the US report on Trafficking. In fact the TFFA had worked with the US industry and various international bodies to try and get the Thai government to take more effective enforcement action.
 
It is notable that the initial complaints about abuse of Migrant labor which focused on shrimp factories, among others, have largely subsided.  The shrimp industry has been able to clean up the labor situation and eliminate abuses in areas where they have had control. 
 
The documented abuses in the State Dept. Report and in NGO media reports no longer target shrimp factories, but say abuses occur in the sex trade, the garment industry, and on Thai fishing vessels. These vessels only have a small relationship to the Thai shrimp aquaculture industry.  Most fishmeal in Thailand uses byproducts from tuna and other processing, and according to CP, only about 10% of fishmeal in use comes from the Thai local fishing industry, which is accused of abusive and forced labor practices.
 
"The US Trafficking in Persons Report [TIP] has created a bad reputation for Thai food industries," Poj told the Nation newspaper. "So, the association and involved organisations need to urgently solve the problem. Exports are not yet impacted as Thai enterprises have always worked on labour protection and addressed the concerns of our trading partners."
 
Poj, speaking to the Nation newspaper,  also explained that normally Thai exporters and importers agree on a system that is "traceable". Importers have sent teams to inspect Thai plants regularly. However, in this difficult period, he felt a third party was needed to reaffirm confidence in Thai plants and the fisheries industry – from upstream to downstream production.
 
The Thai Commerce Ministry has instructed the Thai Trade Representative in Washington DC to increase understanding among American importers and government agencies in a bid to prevent any impact on Thai trade with the US.
 
Srirat Rastapana, permanent secretary at the ministry, said that the American National Fisheries Institute has insisted on continuing trade with Thailand.
 
Retailers taking measures to reassure themselves
 
Retailers, including Whole Foods, are not acting precipitously.  Whole Foods issued a statement saying "Whole Foods Market takes a zero tolerance approach to human rights violations anywhere in our supply chain, and our suppliers sign a contract to uphold that standard. We have suspended our business with CP Food Products until they are able to provide us with substantiation that they have properly addressed the issue of human rights violations in their supply chain."
 
CP is working quickly to provide just that type of assurance.  In the past, Whole Foods has heaped lavish praise on CP, as its primary supplier from Thailand.   Writing about why its customers should have full confidence in Thai shrimp, Whole Foods said  "We have full traceability back to the pond itself, and our shrimp is harvested to order – a rarity in the industry. "
 
"One of our buyers, Wesley Rose, headed [to Thailand]  last year and came back exclaiming, “Not only one of the hottest places on earth, but one of the best run shrimp operations I’ve ever seen.”
 
"That means a lot from the man who’s been everywhere from Alabama and Texas to Honduras and Vietnam looking for the right product that can meet Whole Foods Market’s rigorous aquaculture standards. Of course, the shrimp from this Thailand producer meets or exceeds all of our standards and it wears our Responsibly Farmed logo with honor."
 
 "What set’s this shrimp apart, aside from perfect flavor? Being fully integrated is only a piece of the puzzle. The farms from this producer operate in an area where mangrove destruction is not necessary. Regardless, they go the extra step and replant mangroves at many of their sites. They’ve also set up a foundation where they fund yearly scholarships for local children, assist local farmers in need and donate to local disaster relief organizations — not something you always find overseas."
 
The reason many retailers have relied on Thai shrimp producers has not changed with the Trafficking in Persons Report.  As a result, many will continue their long term relationships with the proper assurances that their supply chains are responsible, transparent, and audited.
 
Little Market Impact Seen
 
The slowdown in Thai production due to EMS has had a much more signficant impact on shrimp availability than the latest failure of the Thai government to control labor abuses on fishing vessels.
 
In Southeast Asia, prices are again rising for shrimp at the farm level.  Despite a temporary dip in China in the last few weeks due to some early harvesting, the primary dynamic has been the entry of processors into the market as the first shrimp crop matures.
 
This has led to increased local buyer demand, and like farmers everywhere, it has led Thai and Vietnamese farmers to slow down their production in the hope that prices will rise over the next few weeks.
 
This can be a self-fulfilling prophacy in a climate where there is competition for shrimp and overseas orders are strong, as is currently the case.
 
But local price increases due to supplier competition are a long way from impacting the overall wholesale shrimp prices in the US, which have generally continued on a weakening trend.
 
That market will stabilize based on consumer demand, and there are some signs that the price decline may have halted based on strong interest in shrimp orders.
 
Most importantly, the Thai labor situation is occuring on top of normal behavior in the shrimp markets and production areas, and is not likely to be a market moving event, although some companies may lose access to some US customers.
 
There is a strong enough demand for shrimp in other markets that these kinds of realignments should have no impact on overall market pricing.

The following story appeared on Seafoodnews.com, a subscription site. It has been reprinted with permission.

June 23, 2014 — According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, even though the United States controls more ocean than any other country, 86 percent of the seafood we consume is imported. In 1982 a Chinese aquaculture scientist named Fusui Zhang journeyed to Martha’s Vineyard in search of scallops. The New England bay scallop had recently been domesticated, and Dr. Zhang thought the Vineyard-grown shellfish might do well in China. After a visit to Lagoon Pond in Tisbury, he boxed up 120 scallops and spirited them away to his lab in Qingdao. During the journey 94 died. But 26 thrived. Thanks to them, today China now grows millions of dollars of New England bay scallops, a significant portion of which are exported back to the United States.

As go scallops, so goes the nation. According to the National Marine Fisheries Service, even though the United States controls more ocean than any other country, 86 percent of the seafood we consume is imported.

But it’s much fishier than that: While a majority of the seafood Americans eat is foreign, a third of what Americans catch is sold to foreigners.

The seafood industry, it turns out, is a great example of the swaps, delete-and-replace maneuvers and other mechanisms that define so much of the outsourced American economy; you can find similar, seemingly inefficient phenomena in everything from textiles to technology. The difference with seafood, though, is that we’re talking about the destruction and outsourcing of the very ecological infrastructure that underpins the health of our coasts. Let’s walk through these illogical arrangements, course by course.

Read the full story at the New York Times

NEW YORK — June 23, 2014 — How do you solve overfishing in the Philippines, one of the top 10 producers of fish worldwide? It looks like there’s an app for that now.

From June 13, 10 pm and 40 hours of fishackathon later (in Boston, Baltimore, Miami, even Silicon Valley), a winner emerged: Hackers from the University of Berkeley-School of Information came up with a tool called Fish DB.

The tool is a three-pronged approach to the problem: for the “ideal world,” a browser-based mobile app for fishermen to submit registration and license applications; for the “real world,” the use of SMS text messages, which does not require internet access and lastly, a web app for government employees to process the submissions.

The mobile app was designed to be as usable as possible for even fishers with marginal literacy: many of the menu options include pictures or diagrams to supplement the textual descriptions. Yes, fishers will need a mobile phone.
To use the app, fishers register their boats, get fishing licenses, and report any illegal fishing activity that they observe. It serves both fishers who need to submit registrations and the government staff who process them.

The winning team from Berkeley received the grand prize: a free trip to the Philippines courtesy of The Office of Global Partnerships & Tone.
The purpose of the trip is to allow them to meet first hand with local fishers, researchers and local officials to get a deeper understanding of how technology can be integrated in coastal communities.

“The State Department organized the fish hackathon. Greenwave (committed to doing it in) in New York,” said Thomas Buck, deputy director of SSG Advisors. He provides assistance to corporate clients and government and non-governmental agencies in building sustainable developmental practices.

Sustaining fishing on a global scale is a major concern of John Kerry, US Secretary of State. In a statement, he said the ocean is being threatened in various ways. ‘It’s threatened by unsustainable fishing, by pollution, by climate change. Indeed, how we respond to these challenges is literally going to help determine the future of our planet.”

Read the full story at Inquirer.net

June 20, 2014 — The U.S. State Department has downgraded Thailand to a Tier 3 trafficking nation designation, indicating the country has not done enough to curb the ongoing problems of human trafficking in a number of industries, including its seafood industry.

The department released the new designation today in its 2014 Trafficking in Persons report, an annual ranking of nations identified as having problems with human trafficking.

“It is slavery, even in the 21st century,” said U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry. "There cannot be impunity for those who traffick in human beings. It must end."

Thailand has been facing pressure from NGOs such as the Environmental Justice Foundation, which has published graphic reports of poor treatment of workers on Thai fishing boats. Many of the workers are immigrants from neighboring countries, conned into getting on the boats, then forced into what some have called modern-day slavery, including beatings, physical restraint and in extreme cases, being murdered and cast overboard for resisting their captors.

Read the full story at SeafoodSource.com

 

June 20, 2014 — Renowned for its warm summers and scenic beauty, Cape Town is also home to Khayelitsha, a deprived and cramped city of more than 700,000 people. Crime and unemployment rates are high and life is often difficult. The mobile fish-farm, housed in a shipping container, is one man's answer to Khayelitsha's many probems.

Watch the video at Boston.com

 

June 19, 2014 — Thai frozen food companies insist they follow international standards against human trafficking and denied accusations about the use of slave labour in the country's fishing industry.

Panisuan Jamnarnwej, president of the Thai Frozen Foods Association (TFFA), said associations in Thailand's fishing industry do not condone the use of slave labour in their industries.

"Business partners and key stakeholders in our business have worked our best against human rights violations. This is not just only for our benefit but also to improve the image of the country," he said.

Read the full story at the Bangkok Post

June 17, 2014 — The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) today announced new coastal programs, valued at more than $170 million, to benefit coastal communities, which are among some of the most vulnerable, poor, and marginalized groups.

The announcement took place at the "Our Ocean" Conference hosted by Secretary of State John Kerry. These programs will support marine conservation, sustainable fisheries, coastal adaptation and efforts to combat illegal fishing and wildlife trafficking in Africa, Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific.

"About 40 percent of the world's population lives within 100 kilometers of the coast. Preserving the earth's priceless marine life and safeguarding our world's valuable coastal resources for human use and future generations is vital," said Eric Postel, USAID's Assistant Administrator on Economic Growth, Education and Environment.

Over one billion people worldwide depend on fish as a primary source of protein. Conserving and managing these coastal and marine resources are essential for meeting global development goals, including food security and nutrition, poverty reduction, and protection of coastal communities from the impacts of climate change.

Read the full story from AllAfrica

June 16, 2014 — The U.S. is seeking to use talks toward the Trans-Pacific Partnership with 11 nations in the Asia-Pacific region to damp demand in the multi-billion dollar black market for wildlife products.

The federal government is pushing to have the potential accord’s environmental chapter “go beyond anything we’ve done before in a trade agreement, in terms of having a chapter on conservation issues, such as illegal wildlife trafficking, illegal logging, illegal fishing,” U.S. Trade Representative Mike Froman told reporters today in New York.

The issues are “particularly relevant to the Asia-Pacific region,” he said at a news conference at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York. Asia’s economy is forecasted to grow 6.12 percent this year, compared with 2.2 percent for the U.S.

Read the full story at Bloomberg

BEIJING, China — June 16, 2014 — The islands have all that one could ask of a tropical resort destination: white sand, turquoise waters and sea winds.

But they took shape only in the last several months, and they are already emerging as a major point of conflict in the increasingly bitter territorial disputes between China and other Asian nations.

China has been moving sand onto reefs and shoals to add several new islands to the Spratly archipelago, in what foreign officials say is a new effort to expand the Chinese footprint in the South China Sea. The officials say the islands will be able to support large buildings, human habitation and surveillance equipment, including radar.

The island-building has alarmed Vietnam, the Philippines and other Southeast Asian nations that also claim sovereignty over the Spratlys. Since April, the Philippines has filed protests to China against land reclamation at two reefs. This month, the Philippine president, Benigno S. Aquino III, criticized the movements of Chinese ships that he said could be engaged in island-building at two other sites.

Chinese actions have also worried senior United States officials. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel scolded China for “land reclamation activities at multiple locations” in the South China Sea at a contentious security conference in Singapore in late May.

Critics say the islands will allow China to install better surveillance technology and resupply stations for government vessels. Some analysts say the Chinese military is eyeing a perch in the Spratlys as part of a long-term strategy of power projection across the Western Pacific.

Perhaps just as important, the new islands could allow China to claim it has an exclusive economic zone within 200 nautical miles of each island, which is defined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The Philippines has argued at an international tribunal that China occupies only rocks and reefs and not true islands that qualify for economic zones.

“By creating the appearance of an island, China may be seeking to strengthen the merits of its claims,” said M. Taylor Fravel, a political scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Read the full story from The New York Times

June 17, 2014 — Oceana today revealed that the illegal use of driftnets to capture swordfish has returned to Tangiers, Morocco. Evidence gathered by the international marine conservation organization over the past three days, shows small-scale vessels acting in coordination with larger ones with absolute impunity to capture swordfish in the Gibraltar Strait.

Xavier Pastor, Executive Director of Oceana in Europe calls for strong action: “Driftnet fishing has been banned since 1992 by United Nations General Assembly, and since 2003 by ICCAT. In 2010, Morocco still used this gear but strong international pressure led to a phase-out one year later.  It is now clear that vessels have resumed illegal fishing right in front of Moroccan authorities. How long is this mockery going to last? We don’t need more words against the use of driftnets, we need real action from authorities at all levels to stop illegal driftnetting now.”

The Spanish fishing industry has already called on Spanish and EU leadership for action against swordfish illegally caught with driftnets being imported into Spain and re-exported into Italy by land, sinking prices of locally and legally fished swordfish. According to Oceana information first sale prices of swordfish in Morocco stand at 5 eur/kg, while in Italy, it could cost more than 15 eur/kg, making this illegal business profitable for intermediaries. Undersized swordfish is also sold locally in Tangiers.

Ilaria Vielmini, marine scientist at Oceana adds: “Both for traditional and cultural reasons, Italy is one of the main EU countries fishing and importing swordfish. Oceana is calling on relevant administrations to close the EU border to these illegally captured fish, and take appropriate action against Morocco to stop this unsustainable fishing practice. Inspection services on land should seize all fish showing evidence of being captured with this illegal fishing gear”.

Read the full story at FishUpdate.com