Washington, DC – Bumble Bee Foods’ new owner, Fong Chun Formosa (FCF), shows potential connections to modern slavery and environmental destruction, according to a new Greenpeace East Asia investigation. FCF, Taiwan’s largest tuna supplier and one of the top three tuna traders in the world, has shown shortcomings on harmful practices such as shark finning, forced labor, and illegal transshipment at sea, which is linked to illegal fishing and human rights abuses. The company acquired Bumble Bee, North America’s largest shelf-stable seafood company, in January of this year, becoming a public facing brand in the U.S.
“This investigation raises serious concerns for anyone buying Bumble Bee canned tuna throughout the country,” said Greenpeace USA Senior Oceans Advisor Andy Shen. “FCF’s failure to address systemic issues in its supply chain means there is a strong likelihood that tainted seafood is ending up on supermarket shelves and in our homes. FCF must assure its new customers in the U.S. that it is taking proactive and aggressive action to enhance the traceability of seafood throughout its supply chains, source from vessels that do not participate in transshipment at sea, and comply with international standards and best practices on human and labor rights.”
Greenpeace East Asia visited one of the ports most frequented by Taiwanese vessels and interviewed migrant fishers, all hired from Indonesia, who worked on the fishing vessels flagged or otherwise linked to Taiwan; as well as analyzed the fishers’ contracts and salary slips. Throughout the interviews, indicators of forced labor were identified, including excessive overtime, withholding of wages, and retention of identity documents.
One fisher reported, “We only got to sleep for five hours if and when we caught some fish. If we didn’t catch anything, we’d just have to keep working, even for 34 hours straight. If it were possible, I’d like to change how much time we have to work and rest, to meet the needs of human bodies. There’s got to be a way to make it more balanced, just like how people who work on land do it.”
Fishers also provided accounts of shark finning and the illegal transfer of crew and shark fins between vessels. According to one fisher:
“We only kept the fins of the sharks and discarded the rest of their meat. Last month, I placed the fins out under the sun to dry, but a few days later, we spotted an American patrol boat. The captain got really scared and told me to hide all the fins so that the Americans wouldn’t find them.”
FCF has strong market links in the Americas, Europe, and Japan, and supplies Bumble Bee with over 95 percent of the albacore tuna they sell. Bumble Bee enjoys a nearly 90 percent consumer awareness level in the U.S. and its canned tuna can be found in many of the largest and most well-known supermarkets and online retailers throughout the country.
The report, “Choppy Waters – Forced Labor and Illegal Fishing in Taiwan’s Distant Water Fisheries,” is available here: https://greenpeace.org/usa/
Photo and video can be accessed here: https://media.greenpeace.org/
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Contact: Perry Wheeler, Greenpeace USA Communications Specialist, P: 301-675-8766
