25/08/2016

Our Response to Greenpeace

Thai Union and all of its brands around the world are committed to operating in an environmentally and socially responsible manner — our future and the future of the oceans depend on it.

There are no quick or easy solutions when it comes to sustainability, but we are working tirelessly and investing significantly to achieve real changes that will benefit the marine environment for all.

This is why we developed SeaChange®, our global sustainability strategy.

SeaChange® will ensure:

• the seas are sustainable now and for future generations, through our work to improve fisheries;
• our workers are safe, legally employed and empowered;
• the vessels we buy from are legal and operate responsibly.

We respect Greenpeace’s position – indeed we share their vision for healthy seas for generations to come. However, we cannot support the methods it uses to highlight its campaigns. At Thai Union, we are doing everything we can to change our own operations and introduce improvements into the global seafood industry. Despite Greenpeace’s attention, we continue to work with governments, NGOs, academics and scientists around the world to provide the global industry with as much intelligence and insight as possible.

This will allow the seafood industry to introduce best practices and put in place the regulations needed to achieve our shared vision for the future. Greenpeace knows this – we meet with them regularly. However, they chose to continue to target Thai Union, attempting to undermine our efforts. Their latest tactic is to target retailers and, in some countries food services and hospitality groups, that use or stock tuna products.We support open debate about the future and health of our oceans. But open debate is not what’s happening – in fact, far from it. To demonstrate exactly what we are doing and our constant commitment to transparency, we are making public our response to Greenpeace here. These were questions Greenpeace asked of all global seafood companies – our response was sent to Greenpeace on 1 July 2016.

We encourage you to read our response and understand what we are doing to improve sustainability of the oceans. Seafood is a critical industry – providing a healthy source of protein and employment to millions of people around the world. But we know that the challenges in the seafood industry are not simple to fix. At Thai Union, we are working to promote open, transparent and honest dialogue across the entire seafood industry for the benefit of long term solutions. It is important that we ensure scientific evidence – not raw emotion – is at the heart of the debate and drive the solutions. That is the way that we must work together to achieve healthy oceans for generations to come. The World Health Organisation estimates over one billion people rely on fish as their main source of animal protein, while the UN reports that 12% of the world’s population earn their livelihood through fisheries and aquaculture.