I contacted you earlier this year regarding The Outlaw Ocean Project’s investigation into abuses in the Chinese fishing and seafood processing industries, as they relate to the supply chains of your brand Albert Heijn. I’m contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s food processing industry, and a link we’ve discovered between companies engaged in such practices and one of your suppliers - High Liner Foods. Ahold Delhaize brands Giant and Food Lion stock a range of High Liner white fish products in the United States. High Liner has impo…

At Ahold Delhaize we are committed to offering high quality products at a good value to our customers. As part of our Health and Sustainability Program, Ahold Delhaize and each of our local brands are also committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations in each of the countries in which we operate, ensuring that the parties that supply Ahold Delhaize brands with goods and services do the same, validating the origin of goods offered for sale by our brands, and maintaining a high standard of business ethics and regard for human rights throughout the supply chain. These Standards…

Unfortunately, we are unable to share any documents or other materials with implicated companies in advance of publication. But I can confirm that our evidence includes state media articles describing government transfers of Xinjiang workers to Yantai Sanko, as well as photographic and video footage showing people from Xinjiang working at both Yantai Sanko and Yantai Longwin as recently as May 2023 and July 2023, respectively. You mention that Ahold Delhaize requires social audit reports from "own-brand suppliers in high-risk countries". Does this apply to High Liner? Do your standards of enga…

As mentioned in our earlier response, we at Ahold Delhaize and our great local brands consider human rights of great importance and we remain committed to following up on allegations or reports of non-compliance with our Standards of Engagement. Ahold Delhaize’s Standards of Engagement apply to all suppliers, including High Liner and its production locations. However, we only require social audit reports from own-brand suppliers in high-risk countries. High Liner does not supply own-brand products to Food Lion or Giant Food. Based on the information you have shared with us; we have contacted o…

A coalition of eighteen NGOs wrote to thirteen major seafood distributors and retailers, including Ahold Delhaize, asking a series of questions connected to The Outlaw Ocean Project's reporting. Their email to Ahold Delhaize said: "Dear Ahold Delhaize,

We are writing to you on behalf of a consortium of human rights NGOs requesting an update on the steps Ahold Delhaize has taken following the investigation published by The Outlaw Ocean Project. The investigation highlighted concerns about state-imposed Uyghur and North Korean forced labor across the Chinese seafood processing facilities, inclu…

We saw that Ahold Delhaize cited our investigative work in its recently published Human Rights Report 2024. We have some questions for the company on foot of this portion of the report, which describes Ahold Delhaize’s actions in response to the concerns raised in our work.

The report says: “In response to the allegations brought to our attention, Ahold Delhaize and the brands immediately followed up with their direct suppliers, regardless of whether they supplied national or own brand products, and asked them to conduct a full investigation, determine whether the brands receive products fro…

Thank you for your email. Ahold Delhaize is committed to being transparent about its progress on human rights, including how allegations are addressed. For that reason, a case study on The Outlaw Ocean Project was included in the Human Rights Report 2024.

Ahold Delhaize expects suppliers to take allegations seriously, conduct investigations and take effective remedial measures if needed. At a minimum, we expect our suppliers to comply to our Standards of Engagement and apply appropriate measures when it comes to deal-breakers (i.e. forced labor). That includes suspending orders from the (…

Dear Ethan and Krysta,

Thank you for your email. In return to your letter, we hereby send you the update that we have also sent today to The Outlaw Ocean Project:

Ahold Delhaize is committed to being transparent about its progress on human rights, including how allegations are addressed. For that reason, a case study on The Outlaw Ocean Project was included in the Human Rights Report 2024.

Ahold Delhaize expects suppliers to take allegations seriously, conduct investigations and take effective remedial measures if needed. At a minimum, we expect our suppliers to comply to our [Standards o…

Since we were last in contact with you, our ongoing investigation has turned up additional findings which we wanted to raise with you, as they relate to Giant’s supply chain.

According to our research, Canadian Fish Exporters supplies pollock under its ‘Buena Ventura’ brand to Giant.

Trade data seen by The Outlaw Ocean Project shows that Canadian Fish Exporters was the consignee for over 100 shipments of pollock from a Chinese company called Donggang Haimeng since 2019. We have uncovered evidence that Donggang Haimeng used North Korean labor after the December 2019 deadline for the repatri…

Thank you for your email. At Ahold Delhaize and our great local brands we consider human rights of great importance. As part of our commitment to human rights, Ahold Delhaize and each of our local brands are also committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations in each of the countries in which we operate, ensuring that the parties that supply Ahold Delhaize brands with goods and services do the same, validating the origin of goods offered for sale by our brands, and maintaining a high standard of business ethics and regard for human rights throughout the supply chain. These Sta…

Thank you very much for coming back to us on this, and for following up with your supplier. The most recent shipment consigned to Canadian Fish Exporters from Donggang Haimeng had an arrival date of February 23, 2022, according to the trade records we’ve seen (these trade records are from the ImportGenius database). Would it be possible for you to share those audit reports with us, or confirm who carried them out? Should we uncover any further findings pertaining to your supply chain, we will certainly bring those to your attention. We are unable to share the specific evidential materials rela…