CGF Business Actions Against Forced Labour booklet
- Organisation
- Consumer Goods Forum
- Location
- Type
- Sector
The Consumer Goods Forum (CGF) are actively promoting responsible business actions to help eradicate forced labour in global supply chains.
One of the ways in which this is achieved is through tools such as the Business Actions Against Forced Labour booklet, where members are showcasing best practices on how they are tackling forced labour. The Tesco case study focusses on seafood (the Mars and Nestlé case studies also mention seafood).
The issue: A 2014 investigation by The Guardian, as well as reports by NGOs and the US State Department, identified cases of modern slavery in the Southeast Asian farmed prawn supply chain. These reports focussed on the trafficking and exploitation of migrant workers on vessels catching fish used to produce fishmeal - an ingredient used in prawn feed. The fishing operations are six steps “up” the supply chain from Tesco and other retailers, however the seriousness of the abuses made it clear that we needed to work closely with our suppliers, other businesses, relevant authorities and NGOs to address these risks and ensure they had no place in any part of our supply.
Tesco actions: They started by mapping the entire Thai prawn supply chain, including the prawn feed, and joined two multi-stakeholder initiatives; the Issara Institute and the Seafood Task Force to accelerate collaborative efforts. As a result of what we have learnt in Thailand, our prawn supplier requirements now include traceability of all Southeast Asian prawn feed back to the fishing vessel and use of independent NGOs in the monitoring of high-risk areas of the supply chain. We will continue to review and strengthen these requirements as we learn more.
Significance for seafood businesses:
Not seafood-specific but provides a means for businesses to publically disclose policies, standards and management approaches to mitigating forced labour in their seafood supply chains and in accordance with the UN Guiding Principles.
Find out more
To find out more click on the link below. Please note you will be taken to an external website.