SeaFood Business

JUL 2013

SeaFood Business is the global trusted authority for seafood buyers and sellers. We are the seafood industry's leading trade magazine with more than 30 years of experience. Our coverage is based on the "business" of buying and selling seafood.

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Top Story of social justice is not a complicated one. Unlike wild fsheries, farms and processing plants are not underwater and don't move around. A team of scientists doesn't need to train facilities in how to meet compliance standards. Basic human rights are not hard to grasp. "Tey just need to understand what's required of them and then they need to get on and do it," says Dan Lee, BAP standards coordinator for the Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA) in St. Louis. "Having good relationships with your employees, it's not rocket science. It's having a commitment and getting on and doing it." Labor costs Labor issues have gotten more attention in the last fve years, beginning in 2008 when the Solidarity Center alleged that the global explosion of shrimp production was only possible at the expense of workers. Its report, "Te True Cost of Shrimp," accused facilities in Tailand and Bangladesh of widespread labor rights and human rights violations. Treat of a U.S. boycott led to government changes and adoption of BAP standards for U.S.-destined shrimp, but allegations of abuse continue to pop up. Last year, Human Rights Watch reported that migrant workers from Cambodia and Myanmar had gone on strike at Phatthana Seafood in southern Tailand, which also supplies shrimp to Walmart, over wage issues and excessive recruitment fees that they say made conditions akin to human bondage. Te problem of labor abuses extends to all areas of the seafood industry in Tailand, says Steve Trent, Environmental Justice Foundation's executive director. In a report released in May, "Sold to the Sea: Human Trafcking in Tailand's Fishing Industry," EJF interviewed six men from Myanmar who said they had been trafcked to work on fshing trawlers for months at sea. Tey reported being forced to work for up to 20 hours a day with little or no pay, and were subject to forced detention, physical abuse and threats of violence. Two men interviewed said they had seen a fellow crewmember tortured and executed for trying to escape and reported the murder of at least fve others. "We've got other investigations under way, and we're looking at the boats and also the seafood processing factories and most particular in relation to shrimp processing," says Trent. "We think there's trafcking and abuses throughout the industry." Pedro Bueno, consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and former director general, Network of Aquaculture Centres in AsiaPacifc, says Tailand's high profle as a seafood exporter inevitably makes it a convenient target. When allegations come out, they don't necessarily tell the whole story of the industry there. He says it has curtailed the use of pre-processing plants — which he says were often just sheds — where many abuses took place. "Te problem is that the entire industry is tarred and feathered by a few errant irresponsible operations," says Bueno. "Tere are some 300 seafood processors in the province of Samut Sakhon — where they are concentrated — and the larger ones are invariably more wary of reputational damage. So they do comply with legal standards, adhere to certifcation schemes and adopt a Visit us online at www.seafoodbusiness.com company code of practice." It happens in America too. Mexican guest workers at C.J.'s Seafood in Breaux Bridge, La., another Walmart shrimp supplier, went on strike in June 2012. Te U.S. Department of Labor cited the company for serious safety violations, failure to pay minimum wage and overtime to 73 workers and for noncompliance with provisions of the H-2B temporary foreign worker visa program. Almost 45 million people worked in the global seafood industry in 2008, according to FAO. With the increased awareness of the seafood supply chain brought on by environmental concerns, their treatment has also been receiving more attention — primarily through such reports by NGOs that describe the exploitation of workers. "I hate to equate the two only because the treatment of a human being on a personal basis should be paramount in our consideration," says John Connelly, president of the National Fisheries Institute in McLean, Va. "Will [social responsibility] become the new sustainability with hundreds of millions of dollars being focused on it? I don't know." Connelly says it's also important not to make the conclusion that they indicate industry-wide standards, especially when allegations are not specifc. "We do think it's very important that any report provide as much specifcally as possible because that allows Shocking reports of exploited workers don't always tell the whole story. the value chain to act on it," he says. "It can be frustrating when there's broad allegations without identifying the manufacturer, or processing plant or distributor. We can't solve a problem unless we know where it is. Branded companies particularly are going to expend an enormous amount of efort making sure they don't have these kinds of problems in their supply chains." And while seafood processing jobs may not be the most attractive opportunities, they are important to many people's lives. "Seafood processing is tough work. It can be wet, it can be cold, it can be repetitive, but it's work that provides the livelihood in wages for hundreds of thousands of people," says Connelly. "Tat's an important Continued on page 37 July 2013 SeaFood Business 19

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