Saving Seafood

International seafood buyers urge Thailand to stand strong on fisheries reforms

February 11, 2020 — Several retailers and buyers sourcing seafood from Thailand have called on the Southeast Asian nation to preserve major regulations in the fisheries sector amidst fears that recently-made reforms may be rolled back.

In an open letter posted on the website of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) last week, the buyers said they “urge the Royal Thai government to continue the path of reform and work constructively with national actors to achieve a transition towards a legal, ethical and sustainable fishing sector.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source

How Thai Union rapidly pivoted to a greener business strategy

January 21, 2020 — Back in 2015, Thai Union had run into choppy waters. The multi-billion dollar seafood giant behind global tinned fish brands John West in the United Kingdom, Chicken of the Sea in the United States and King Oscar in Norway, among many others, had a PR shipwreck in its sights, and needed to shift coordinates swiftly.

Exposés in the New York Times, Associated Press and The Guardian had laid bare human rights abuses, forced labor and environmentally destructive fishing methods in Asian supply chains for canned seafood and prawns that ended up in U.K. supermarkets, placing Thai Union — one of the biggest producers in the world — firmly in the media and campaigner firing line.

Greenpeace didn’t mince its words, calling on consumers and investors to boycott the company, accusing it of “sacrificing the world’s oceans” and “destructive, wasteful fishing practices from its supply chains.”

“For far too long Thai Union Group has passed the blame onto others and hidden behind ineffective policies,” Greenpeace campaigner Graham Forbes said at the time. “Until this industry giant takes responsibility and demonstrates real leadership, we will work to ensure that every single customer knows it’s not just tuna that comes with buying one of its tainted brands.”

Read the full story at GreenBiz

Retailers, brands refusing to pay more for slavery-free seafood

December 5, 2019 — Few buyers of seafood from Thailand are building the cost of social and environmental compliance into the prices they’re paying, undermining efforts to keep slavery and other labor abuse issues out of the supply chain, according to a new report from Praxis Labs, funded by the non-governmental organizations Humanity United and the Freedom Fund.

The report, “Tracking Progress: Assessing Business Responses to Forced Labour and Human Trafficking in the Thai Seafood Industry,” investigated how industry responded to the exposure of labor and human rights abuses in the Thai seafood sector, which were exposed in the past five years by The Associated Press and The Guardian.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Tuna fleets to hold crisis meeting as skipjack prices drop to record low

November 8, 2019 — Some of the world’s biggest tuna fishing fleets are set to meet “face to face” next week to discuss the current market crisis.

An oversupply of skipjack tuna has led raw material prices for delivery in Bangkok, Thailand to dive from $1,600 per metric ton in March to $900/t this month, a record low. This has caused many purse seine boats around the world to operate at a loss. Prices are expected to drop even further in the near future -with rumours of some exchanges done at $850/t in recent days- a situation that is seen as unsustainable for most tuna fleets.

The World Tuna Purse Seine Organization (WTPO) will hold a meeting on Nov. 13 in Manila, the Philippines, to discuss the market and catch situations in relation to “concerns” raised by WCPO and Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission members.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News

Thai fishing group lobbies government to relax reforms, leaving NGOs, retailers, and suppliers troubled

September 19, 2019 — A list of demands from the National Fishing Association of Thailand (NFAT) – shared with Thai government officials in a closed-door meeting – could “derail the reform of the country’s fisheries,” according to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) and its sources.

NFAT’s demands include lifting all restrictions on crew and catch transfers at sea, as well as being allowed to fish for much longer without the obligation to record exact fishing locations, EJF said. Additionally, the group has called for vessels that lost their licenses in 2015 to be allowed to fish once more, and for the abolishment of annual inspections of vessels and crew. It has also requested that age restrictions on fishing be relaxed, and that operators be given the capability to revise crew lists for many hours after leaving port.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

New film, “Buoyancy,” tackles issue of slavery in Thai seafood industry

August 19, 2019 — An Australian filmmaker is hoping that his debut feature film entitled, “Buoyancy,” will help to raise greater awareness of human trafficking and slavery on Thai fishing vessels.

Rodd Rathjen’s award-winning film highlights the plight of thousands of migrant Cambodian workers trapped in modern slavery in the Thai seafood industry. Shot in Cambodia in the Khmer and Thai languages, the film centers on the plight of an impressionable 14-year old Cambodian boy, who sets out to escape poverty by finding work in a Thai factory, but finds himself sold by a broker and enslaved on a fishing trawler. The result is a harrowing exposition of a reality that remains an issue for the Thai industry, despite ongoing efforts to combat it.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

2019 SeaWeb Seafood Summit wrap-up: Attendees recognize Thailand’s Labor Rights Promotion Network; event organizers look to what’s next

June 14, 2019 — “This is a celebration – not a competition,” said Diversified Communication’s Ned Daly of the Seafood Collaboration Project, which seeks to improve networking and collaboration in seafood and provide a platform for under-represented voices.

On 13 June, the final day of the 2019 SeaWeb Seafood Summit – taking place in Bangkok, Thailand – eight organizations participating in the Seafood Collaboration Project shared their stories with attendees to wrap up the event. Among the participating organizations were Mexico’s Impacto Colectivo para la Pesca y Acuacultura en México, Stella Maris of Thailand, the International Transport Workers Federation of Thailand, the Labor Rights Promotion Network of Thailand, Sailors for the Sea – Japan, Teng Hoi of Hong Kong, Sustainable Fisheries Trade of Peru, and the Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative (ASIC) of Southeast Asia.

Following presentations from each of the organizations, summit attendees were asked to vote for one to receive a USD 10,000 (EUR 8,871) prize – not in the spirit of contest, but rather to further recognize the amazing, collective work already underway around the world in the name of seafood sustainability, Daly explained.

“We are here to celebrate the people, organizations, partnerships, and collaborations that are driving improvements in ocean resources and seafood supply chains,” he said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Thailand-based fisheries association threatens protests over IUU rules

June 13, 2019 — The National Fisheries Association of Thailand is threatening protests against the government in the wake of measures by the government to curb illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

According to the Bangkok Post, the association members are threatening to camp out in front of Thailand’s Agriculture Ministry due to rules implemented in the last five years. Those rules partially stemmed from the issuance of a yellow card by the European Union – which was lifted in January – that the country received in 2015 in response to the lack of effective sanctions to prevent IUU fishing.

Those new rules have caused a shortage of workers, forcing operators out of business, association president Mongkol Sukcharoenkhana told the Bangkok Post.

“If these laws aren’t changed, the fishermen will head to Bangkok and camp out in front of the Agriculture Ministry,” he told the paper.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Fair Trade founder heralds the rise of the conscious consumer

June 12, 2019 — The age of the conscious consumer has arrived, much to the delight of Fair Trade USA founder and CEO Paul Rice.

The keynote speaker at this year’s SeaWeb Seafood Summit – taking place in Bangkok, Thailand, from 10 to 14 June – Rice shared some promising news about modern consumer behavior with conference attendees, all of whom have a vested interest in the sustainable seafood movement.

“Consumers are changing the world,” he said. “Their purchasing decisions are both luring more companies into the sustainability space and rewarding those companies that do.”

Shoppers are increasingly opening up their minds and wallets to seafood that appeals to their growing sustainability sensibilities, Rice explained, referencing an impressive leap in sales experienced by one of the certifier’s seafood partners after the supplier introduced Fair Trade scallops to its portfolio.

“One of the companies that we work with in our sustainability program had scallop sales of 3 percent year-over-year growth – they introduced Fair Trade scallops and their sales growth on the scallop line jumped to 38 percent,” Rice said. “Now that’s an extraordinary and probably unusual sales bump as a result of adding the Fair Trade label, but it illustrates the point, which is regardless of what certification it is or what sustainability attribute we add to products, consumers are hungry to reward companies that are doing the right thing and are looking for products that speak to their values.”

Read the full story at Seafood Source