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. Metro stocks a range of High Liner Foods products containing white fish.

High Liner has imported shipments of cod, pollock, haddock, yellowfin sole, ocean perch and flounder from Yantai Sanko Fisheries Co. Ltd., a seafood processor based in China. Yantai Sanko Fisheries Co. Ltd. has received persons from the Xinjiang region of China under a gover…

All METRO suppliers are required to respect working conditions across the supply chain as outlined in our Supplier Code of conduct for responsible procurement (SCoC). We assess suppliers’ conformity to our SCoC through our partnership with Supplyshift, a cloud-based platform supported by a team of ESG experts. METRO knows that the fishing and aquaculture industries face challenges that concern the sustainability of fish and seafood stocks, the protection of biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as working conditions. This is why we support excellent procurement practices in our fish and seafood…

Thank you for your response and for sharing the METRO Supplier Code of Conduct. We note that it applies to all entities in your extended supply chain (first, second, third tier suppliers, etc) and includes a prohibition on forced labor.

Please could you outline the steps METRO has taken to monitor compliance with its Code of Conduct at the Chinese factories referred to in our August 22, 2023, email that supply High Liner with seafood?

You state that High Liner is in compliance with the METRO Supplier Code of Conduct, which we note includes the following as part of principle 3.2: "METRO expec…

Trade records seen by The Outlaw Ocean Project show that, between 2019 and 2022, Premier Marine Canada was the consignee for at least seven shipments of seafood from processors in China that have received people from the Xinjiang region of China under a state imposed labor transfer program. The processors, Rizhao Meijia Aquatic and Rizhao Jiayuan, are both owned by the Meijia Group. The Meijia Group has received persons from the Xinjiang region of China under a state-imposed labor transfer program since 2019 and until as recently as May 2023. We have uncovered evidence of Uyghur workers in Riz…

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

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, including within your company’s…

We previously emailed Metro on September 25, 2023 regarding our investigation into the use of forced labor in China’s seafood processing industry. Since then, our ongoing investigation has uncovered additional evidence.

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 Kore…

Thank you for bringing this issue to our attention. We will investigate the situation with Aqua Star.

As previously mentioned, all METRO suppliers are required to respect working conditions across the supply chain as outlined in our Supplier Code of conduct for responsible procurement (SCoC). We assess suppliers’ conformity to our SCoC through our partnership with Supplyshift, a cloud-based platform supported by a team of ESG experts.

Through this program, we have confirmed that Aqua Star’s practices are in line with our…