We’re contacting you in light of our latest investigation which concerns the use of forced labor in China’s seafood processing industry, specifically North Korean workers in Chinese plants. We have investigators on the ground in China who have been engaging with labor brokers directly involved with the transfer of North Korean workers to factories in China. Through this and other investigative means, including collecting online footage from the plants and interviews with workers recently returned to North Korea from China, we’ve found large numbers of North Korean workers at a range of seafood…
My name is Javier Fernández and I am the responsible of Human Rights in the supply chain for Mercadona. First of all, I would like to thank you, as we were not aware of issues that you have risen up. Upon receiving this information from you, we have taken steps with our supplier Congalsa in order to get more information about the concerning situation you have reported. However, in addition to the investigation we have started, I would like to have a meeting with you. On the one hand, to get to know each other and, of course, on the other hand, to be able to discuss this issue in depth and shar…
Thank you very much for your email and for Mercadona’s engagement with us on this. As you may not know, we're communicating with over 300 companies about our investigation into forced labor, and we're doing so always in writing and on record so we can be fully transparent. While I am unable to meet - and thank you for making that offer - we are happy to keep talking by email.
Of course, we fully understand your need to keep communications via email. We will do so. We do have a strong commitment to Human Rights and therefore we kindly ask you to provide us with all the information you can so that we can progress with our investigation. On our part, as soon as we find out more, we will share it with you.
Thank you for your continued interest and engagement on this.
As a journalism outlet, we are unable to provide anything that risks exposing our sources to retribution or penalty from authorities in China and/or North Korea. That said, we do not wish to hinder your investigation into the allegations and will share what additional context we feel safely able to at this time.
Over the past several months, our investigation has interviewed North Korean workers who worked as recently as 2023 at facilities they said were owned by Haiqing. These workers, most of them women, described their time d…
Of course, I understand your need to protect your sources and we respect it. All the information you have provided us with is well appreciated, and we are deeply concerned about the situation. We strongly condemn any practices that violate human rights, as the ones you have described.
We would like to inform you, in an open and transparent manner, that our supplier Congalsa did purchase a very small quantity of fish on the dates you mentioned. Like us, Congalsa was not aware of the situation.
Although it was an small quantity, Congalsa have contacted Haiqing, who has told us that they have n…