I happened upon an article the other day in the Guardian.
Revealed: Asian slave labour producing prawns for supermarkets in US, UK

The article reveals that Charoen Pokphand (CP) has been using trafficked humans in their supply chain.

“Men who have managed to escape from boats supplying CP Foods and other companies like it told the Guardian of horrific conditions, including 20-hour shifts, regular beatings, torture and execution-style killings. Some were at sea for years; some were regularly offered methamphetamines to keep them going. Some had seen fellow slaves murdered in front of them.”

These practices seem to be common amongst many Thai shrimp suppliers.  The Guardian identified that US giants Costco and WalMart both engage in business with CP. A quick trip to the grocery store also revealed that both Superstore and Sobeys were selling CP goods,  under the Authentic Asia brand.

A current look at private shrimp at Sobeys and Superstore they they are currently sourced in India, but I know in recent years that the shrimp for both stores private labels were sourced in Thailand.

I don’t know about others reading this article, but I will not be buying CP products or shrimp sourced in Thailand. I also will be contacting Loblaw head office customerservice@loblaws.ca and Sobeys customer.service@sobeys.com to let them know that I want them to stop dealing with the Thai shrimp trade. I would also like to say that I will be boycotting groceries at any of these retailers but sadly Costco, Sobeys, Loblaw and WalMart or susiduries are essentially our only option for grocery basics.