Correspondence
Email sent to the contact address for Valio Foods GmbH.
The email said that Yantai Sanko Fisheries Co. Ltd., which has supplied seafood products, including yellowfin sole and Pacific rockfish, to Valio Food GmbH’s Aqua Queen brand, received Xinjiang forced labor as recently as 2022. The email asked for comment.
Merle Meiners, Purchasing and Key Account Manager at Valio, replied with a statement from the Group CEO, Oliver Winter. The statement said: “In September 2019 and December 2020, Valio Food GmbH, which is a 100% subsidiary of Valio Hamburg group, received two deliveries of Frozen MSC Redfish fillet, which was produced at Yantai Sanko Fisheries Co. Ltd via a Chinese broker company. The deliveries are not related to our brand called Aqua Queen at all. We did not receive any delivery of yellowfin sole from Yantai Sanko Fisheries Co. Ltd at any time. We do not have a regular supply relationship with this factory and did not receive any further deliveries since December 2020.” The statement also said that at the time of those deliveries, Yantai Sanko was certified according to the SMETA 4 Pillar by Bureau Veritas. “We received the Corrective Action Plan Report (CAPR) in 2019. This report gives no reason to believe that this company is associated with forced labor.”
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied, saying that Valio Food has shared photos online of packaging of Aqua Queen products - yellowfin sole and redfish - that bear Yantai Sanko's plant code. The email asked if these products were part of the shipment referenced in Valio's statement.
Merle Meiners, Purchasing and Key Account Manager at Valio replied, saying: "As stated earlier, we stand for our values of responsible and ethical treatment of people, animals and our environment along the entire supply chain and strictly condemn any violation of human rights." Valio confirmed that the social media posts referenced in The Outlaw Ocean Project's last email were of yellowfin sole, which has a different name in German, and that this product was packed with Aqua Queen branding and part of the shipments dating from 2019 and 2020. "We would like to state again that at the time of purchase and receipt of the products, there was no suspicion of any violation of human rights concerning Yantai Sanko. We stopped working with them in 2020 and do not have a supply relationship with them since that time, nor any direct contact (as mentioned, we bought product from them in 2019 and 2020 through a Chinese broker)." The email also said The Outlaw Ocean Project's investigation found evidence later than their shipments from Yantai Sanko, and asked for further details of the investigation so that Valio can use it as an example to build more awareness of potential violation of human rights.
The Outlaw Ocean Project replied, saying that Uyghur labor has been found at the plant in early 2019, and asking if Valio would provide further details of the SMETA audit referenced in their earlier statement.
Valio replied with some details on the SMETA audit, including date carried out and the auditing body, but said that they don't have the full report available, only the corrective action plant report.