Correspondence
Email sent to the PR team at Loblaw. The group owns Loblaws Supermarket, Real Canadian Superstore, No Frills and Fortinos.
The email said that High Liner fish products are stocked by Loblaw’s supermarkets, Real Canadian Superstore, No Frills and Fortinos. High Liner sources fish, including haddock fillets, pollock fillets and Pacific cod, from the processor Yantai Sanko Fisheries. Premier Marine Canada’s seafood mix is stocked by Loblaws, No Frills and Real Canadian Superstore. Premier Marine Canada imports seafood mix from the processor Rizhao Meijia Aquatic, a Meijia Group company. The Meijia Group and Yantai Sanko Fisheries Co. Ltd. have received persons from the Xinjiang region of China under a state-imposed labor transfer program. The United Nations, human rights organizations and academic experts agree that since 2018, the Chinese government has systematically subjected Xinjiang’s predominantly Muslim ethnic minorities to forced labor across the country via state-sanctioned employment schemes which use coercive methods in worker enrollment. The U.S. has prohibited the importation of goods produced from state-imposed forced labor. The email asked for comment.
Email sent to Loblaws regarding the supplier High Liner Foods and connecctions to Uyghur forced labor at the processing plants Yantai Sanko and Yantai Longwin. The email asked: Could you confirm whether white fish sourced from Yantai Sanko or Yantai Longwin has been used in any of the High Liner branded white fish sold by Loblaws, No Fills and Real Canadian Superstore since 2019?
Loblaws' Public Relations Team replied: "We take allegations such as these very seriously. This is confirmation that Loblaw Brands is not currently sourcing High Liner products for any control brand products, however as a current national brand vendor, High Liner is compliant in our program and have signed off on their commitment to upholding our Code of Conduct. Our Supplier Code (attached) focuses on workers’ rights and protections within the supply chain, with a particular emphasis on the importance of protecting their human rights and providing safe working conditions."
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied: "Please could you clarify what you mean by "Loblaw Brands is not currently sourcing High Liner products for any control brand products" and "current national brand vendor"? Thank you for sharing the Loblaw Supplier Code of Conduct. It is not clear to us that the definition of "Related parties" in your code extends to second- and third-tier suppliers. To clarify, we don't have evidence of forced labor at facilities operated by your first-tier supplier High Liner. Our evidence of Xinjiang forced labor relates to Chinese factories supplying High Liner with a variety of seafoods. Please could you confirm whether Loblaw's Supplier Code of Conduct applies to High Liner's suppliers, and outline the steps Loblaw takes to monitor compliance with its Code of Conduct at sites in its extended supply chain?"
Loblaw's Public Relations Team emailed: "To clarify, High Liner is not a supplier of our private label products, often referred to as “control brands”. As a national brand supplier – a vendor who appears within our stores under their own brand – we do not investigate the upstream supply chain. With that said, you will see in the below highlighted sections of our CoC, we clearly outline our expectations of the primary supplier as well as the expectation of those suppliers to manage their upstream supply chain in the same consistent manner." The email included details from the company's Supplier Code of Conduct, including its expectations of responsible sourcing and human rights commitments.
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed the Loblaws Public Relations team regarding further findings of the investigation: "Trade data shows that Rongcheng Puchen Aquatic has sent dozens of shipments of seafood products to Toppits Foods since 2018, including frozen breaded squid rings, breaded calamari rings, frozen squid tubes, frozen crumbed squid rings and tentacles, and frozen calamari bites. We have evidence of squid catch from a Zhoushan Ningtai Ocean Fisheries vessel that engaged in unregulated fishing activity - the Ning Tai 58 - at Rongcheng Puchen’s processing plant. Another 14 vessels owned by Zhoushan Ningtai are linked to a range of environmental and human rights issues including forced labor, AIS spoofing, shark finning, and unauthorized transhipment. Unauthorized transhipment can undermine supply chain traceability by obfuscating the movement of catch from vessel to processor. Toppits-branded products including breaded calamari rings and seafood medley containing squid are sold at Fortinos and Loblaws. Does Loblaws have any comment or clarification to make regarding the above information?"
The Loblaw Public Relations team replied: "We take allegations such as these very seriously. We have confirmed that Loblaw Brands does source control brand products from Toppits "Foods. We are currently working with our internal teams to ensure Toppits Foods is compliant and upholding our Code of Conduct. Our Supplier Code focuses on workers’ rights and protections within the supply chain, with a particular emphasis on the importance of protecting their human rights and providing safe working conditions. For more information on this and other matters of supply chain accountability, please visit our website https://www.loblaw.ca/en/supply-chain/. We appreciate you reaching out and would like to hightlight that these conversations take time, and unfortunately we cannot guarantee that we will be able to have further details to share by EOD September 21st.
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed the Loblaw Public Relations team, saying: "Trade records seen by The Outlaw Ocean Project show that, between 2019 and 2022, Premier Marine Canada was the consignee for at least seven shipments of seafood from processors in China that have received people from the Xinjiang region of China under a state imposed labor transfer program. The processors, Rizhao Meijia Aquatic and Rizhao Jiayuan, are both owned by the Meijia Group. The Meijia Group has received persons from the Xinjiang region of China under a state-imposed labor transfer program since 2019 and until as recently as May 2023. We have uncovered evidence of Uyghur workers in Rizhao Jiayuan in 2019. Trade records also show that Premier Marine Canada was the consignee for seafood from Yantai Sanko Fisheries in 2019, a processor referenced in our previous correspondence with you regarding the use of Uyghur forced labor. According to Premier Marine Canada’s official website, Premier Marine is a private label partner of your company. While we recognize that you may not be aware of this problem, we wish to ask you: Can you confirm or deny if any seafood from Rizhao Meijia Aquatic, Rizhao Jiayuan or Yantai Sanko Fisheries has been used in any products sold by your company since 2019? Does Loblaw have any comment or clarification to make in response to the above information?"
Loblaws replied: "Thank you for your inquiry. We take allegations such as these very seriously.
Confirming that Premier Marine Canada is an active control brand vendor. We can confirm that this vendor is in compliance with our attached code of conduct.
Our Supplier Code focuses on workers’ rights and protections within the supply chain, with a particular emphasis on the importance of protecting their human rights and providing safe working conditions. For more information on this and other matters of supply chain accountability, please visit our website https://www.loblaw.ca/en/supply-chain/.
We have forwarded this allegation to the appropriate teams internally and should there be any further details we will communicate accordingly."