Correspondence
Email sent to the media contact for Jerónimo Martins.
The email said: "We’re contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s seafood processing industry, specifically North Korean workers in Chinese plants. We have investigators on the ground in China who have been engaging with labor brokers directly involved with the transfer of North Korean workers to factories in China. Through this and other investigative means, including collecting online footage from the plants and interviews with workers recently returned to North Korea from China, we’ve found large numbers of North Korean workers at a range of seafood processing plants in Liaoning province, on China’s border with North Korea.
We have information that as recently as October 2023, there were hundreds of North Korean workers at Donggang Haimeng Foodstuff in Liaoning.
According to trade records seen by The Outlaw Ocean Project, Pascoal E. Filhos was the consignee for shipments of seafood, including cod, from Donggang Haimeng in 2022.
Pascoal-branded cod (‘Lombos Bacalhau Pascoal’) is available at Recheio and at Pingo Doce, which are Jerónimo Martins companies.
In light of this, we have the following questions for Jerónimo Martins:
- While we understand that you may not be aware of the above issues, we want to ask if Jerónimo Martins has any comment to make in response to this email?
- Can you confirm or deny if any seafood from Donggang Haimeng has been supplied to Recheio and/or Pingo Doce by Pascoal E. Filhos, since December 2019?"
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed: "As we haven’t heard back from you on this, we wanted to loop around one more time to make sure you saw our query. Our work will be published in Portugal by Público and, if you have a statement or comment to make in response to our query, we will need it before close of business on February 22, 2024."