Correspondence
Email sent to Brian Kwon, CEO of Grand BK Corporation. January 17, 2023: A letter with the same text as the email dated January 10 was sent by certified mail.
The email described abuses on a jigger owned by Rongcheng Wangdao, including the death of one crew member and disembarkation of a second for medical care after mistreatment on board, and multiple indicators of forced labor among the ship’s crew. It then traced squid from that vessel to the Chishan Group processor Rongcheng Haibo, which supplies squid products to Grand BK Corporation. The Wangdao vessel also transhipped with reefers owned by the CNFC whose subsidiary Yantai New Ocean Aquatic also supplies squid to Grand BK. The email asked if the company had any comment to make in light of this information.
Email sent to Grand BK saying that the company's suppliers Rizhao Meijia Aquatic Foodstuff Co. Ltd. and Rizhao Meijia Keyuan Foods Co. Ltd. are Meijia Group companies. The email said that Meijia Group and another of Grand BK’s suppliers, Rongcheng Haibo, have received persons from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of the People’s Republic of China under China's state-imposed labor transfer program, and that the U.S. has prohibited the importation of goods produced from state-imposed forced labor. The email also asked for comment.