A LAWSUIT filed in the US federal court in San Francisco, alleging retailer Costco Wholesale Corp knowingly sold frozen prawns linked to a company that uses slaves, has been derided for being "entirely without merit" by Thai seafood supply company CP Food Products.
The lawsuit is seeking a court order to stop Costco from selling prawns without a label stating that slave labour was involved in the farm raised prawns.
The claim accuses Costco of being aware the prawns bought from its Southeast Asian producers come from a supply chain dependent on ships involved in human trafficking, as well as committing labour abuses, reported Reuters.
The exporter, CP Food Products Inc, and its parent company, Thailand's Charoen Pokphand Foods PCL, were also named in the lawsuit that was filed on behalf of California resident Monica Sud, a member of Costco, which is run as a warehouse club, whose lawyers are seeking class-action status, which if granted it could affect millions of customers in California.
"CPF believes that it has complied with all applicable laws and regulations, and that the complaint is entirely without merit," the company said in a statement.
Costco, the third largest US retailer, said these allegations over issues in the Thai seafood industry have been well publicised for more than a year.
This followed an investigation by London's Guardian newspaper into the prawn supply chain that found large numbers of men were bought and held against their will on fishing boats off Thailand used to farm prawns sold in some of the world's leading supermarkets.
The investigation found Charoen Pokphand (CP) Foods, the world's largest prawn farmer, was buying fishmeal to feed to its farmed prawns from some suppliers that owned, operated or bought from fishing boats manned by slaves.
In response to the allegations of labour violations, CP Foods said in a statement in March that it had "locked down our supply to 30 by-catch fishmeal suppliers and 380 fishing vessels, for which we have full visibility and traceability on sustainability and social issues".
LOGISTICS
25 August 2015 - 21:06
Costco, Thai supplier accused in lawsuit of selling prawns using slaves
A LAWSUIT filed in the US federal court in San Francisco, alleging retailer Costco Wholesale Corp knowingly sold frozen prawns linked to a company that uses slaves, has been derided for being "entirely without merit" by Thai seafood supply company CP Food Products.
LOGISTICS
25 August 2015 - 21:06
Costco, Thai supplier accused in lawsuit of selling prawns using slaves
This news 5480 hits received.
These news may also interest you