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 with accreditations issued by your organization.
Our investigation has identified a number of Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified seafood processing facilities in China using forced labor from the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region (XUAR). SGS Nederland BV is the accreditor listed in the MSC Supplier Directory for the processing plant Shandong Haidu Ocean Product Co. Ltd., and your website states you undertake social audits usin…
We acknowledge receipt of your mail and query. Could you please let us know on which channels, when and what do you plan to publish as an article? Thank you for some more details about the context of your query that you can provide.
The audit SGS carried out was a traceability audit. This audit is not a social audit. It doesn’t cover working conditions.
The scope of a traceability audit is to ensure that seafood products that arise from MSC Certified Fisheries are traceable and kept separate from non-certified seafood products. These Chain of Custody audits are conducted by traceability auditors and not social auditors.
We delivered services according to the scope of defined in the contracts and with the MSC Chain of custody standards. The social aspect of these MSC Chain of Custody audits was not carried out by SGS, bu…
Thank you for your engagement and for this helpful clarification on the nature of SGS' involvement. Can I confirm you're saying that SGS has only ever conducted MSC traceability audits at both of the plants referred to in our first email, Shandong Lanrun Aquatic Products Co. Ltd. and Shandong Haidu Ocean Product Co. Ltd.?
We’re communicating with the global customers of 11 MSC-certified Chinese seafood processing plants that use Uyghur forced labor, and as part of these conversations are learning more about the audits conducted at the sites. According to our current records, at least one of t…
As already mentioned, we reiterate that no social audit has been conducted by SGS to any of the two plants included in your first email (Shandong Lanrun Aquatic Products Co. Ltd. and Shandong Haidu Ocean Product Co. Ltd.).
In reference to the additional list of processing plants you provided, SGS has conducted SMETA audits to some of those locations, not in the context of MSC certifications but on the request of SEDEX Members” and providing details on the audit type, audit scheme, factory name and audit date for Qingdao Tianyuan Aquatic Foodstuffs Co. Ltd., Rongcheng Haibo Seafood Co. Ltd.,…
Thank you for sharing these details, we really appreciate the transparency and engagement from SGS on this matter. Our interactions with US importers buying from some of these parties indicate that SGS has undertaken audits on other dates not listed here. Please could you provide a comprehensive account of SGS social audit activities in relation to each of these sites? Relatedly, can I confirm whether the 12 May 2022 SMETA audit of Rongcheng Haibo included worker dormitories in scope?
We have provided you with all the audits our social audit teams in China have conducted since 2015 for the factories listed. If you are in possession of other reports for these factories that carry our name, we will need more details (report number, date of the audit, name of the auditors) to further investigate." His email added: "We are not at liberty to publicly release specific details of audit report results.
Thank you for your reply, John. We are clarifying matters with importers and, where relevant, will be back in touch with you to disclose further details of their claims regarding SGS audit activities. In the meantime, please note that we're not asking SGS to disclose audit report results. As SGS is no doubt aware, SMETA Measurement Criteria cover aspects of on- and off-site worker accommodation. It is our understanding that there are on-site worker dormitories at Rongcheng Haibo. We are asking whether the SMETA audit conducted by SGS included worker dormitories within audit scope, and/or wheth…