Correspondence
Email sent to the contact address for Pescados Videla.
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 December 2023, there were 50-70 workers at Dalian Haiqing Food Co. Ltd. in Liaoning.
According to trade records seen by The Outlaw Ocean Project, Pescados Videla was the consignee for shipments of seafood from Dalian Haiqing in 2022.
The use of overseas North Korean workers was prohibited by the United Nations Security Council in 2017, with Resolution 2397 setting a deadline of December 2019 for the repatriation of all such workers to North Korea. Under the Countering America's Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), passed in 2017, the United States prohibits the import of any goods produced by North Korean nationals unless clear and convincing evidence is provided that indicates the materials were not made with forced labor.
While we understand that you may not be aware of the above issues, we want to ask if Pescados Videla has any comment to make in response to this email?"
The Outlaw Ocean Project's publishing partner El Pais contacted Pescados Videla, repeating the questions posed by The Outlaw Ocean Project in the January 29, 2024, email.
Pescados Videla replied to The Outlaw Ocean's publish partner El Pais: "First of all, I must express our surprise at your email. Nobody from either your newspaper or the NGO The Outlaw Ocean Project, has contacted us.
We categorically deny that the entity Pescados Videla SA has a relationship with the Dalian Haiqing company and that has been involved, in any way, in the events referred to in your email. Therefore, we firmly request that both you and Ms. Belinda Saile, head of the publication, and the newspaper which you represent to refrain from making any reference to our company. Otherwise, do not doubt that we will take all necessary actions to defend our company and our workers.
Without further ado, we await your comments.
PS: I copy below the email that we have received from you and that to date is the only information that we have received."
The Outlaw Ocean Project emailed Pescados Videla: "Our publishing partner El Pais shared with us your email about our investigation into the use of forced labor in China’s seafood processing industry. Firstly, thank you for your time and attention on this issue, and your engagement with the reporting.
We emailed the importacion@grupovidela.com email address which we got from trade listings and corporate documents on January 29, 2024, and received no reply. You can see the details of that email published on our Discussion page, here.
We appreciate your concern about the findings of our investigation and want to give you additional information and context about the supply chain link we found between Dalian Haiqing and Pescados Videla:
One of the tools we use in helping to trace supply chains around the world is the ███ database which catalogs bills of lading for the movement of goods internationally. ████ shows that in 2022 there were eight shipments of “frozen MSC rocksole married fillet” from Dalian Haiqing to the consignee “Pescados Videla S.A.” Seven are listed as arriving at port in Valencia, with one listed as arriving at Barcelona. All shipments left the port of Dalian in China, according to the bills of lading records on ███. I’ve included screenshots of the ███ database capture regarding these shipments for your perusal.
Bills of lading are, as you surely know, official government documents for the sake of tracking imports and exports. ████ is widely recognized by industry and governments as among the best repositories of such documents. If the information listed on the ████ site is incorrect, we suggest you contact them and if they inform you that the information published there is incorrect, please do alert us so we can update the information.
Dalian Haiqing operates multiple plants, including plants named Dalian Jiaming and Dalian Haikuo, from the same area in Zhuanghe City, Liaoning. Is it possible that Pescados Videla received the shipments of rocksole under one of those names in 2022?
Do know that for sake of transparency all of our exchanges with companies in this investigation are public and on record, and we will store any such interactions on this Discussion page.
Thank you again for your attention."