john west

Cheap seafood costs too much in human suffering

Posted by Willie — 14 December 2015 at 1:09pm - Comments
All rights reserved. Credit: Dita Alangkara/Associated Press
Children and teenagers sit together to be registered by officials during a raid on a shrimp shed in Samut Sakhon, Thailand.

About 8 years ago, I had the joy of doing a live news interview from a fish processing factory in Grimsby. Being in a fish processing factory in Grimsby was fine, it was wearing a hair net on national TV that wasn’t.

The story being discussed was seafood brand Young’s decision to ship UK-caught shrimp all the way to Thailand and back, a move that was ‘better’ in terms of CO2 emissions, and cheaper for consumers.

But what price do we pay for cheap seafood?

Article tagged as: cheap seafood, EJF, fair trade, fish, human rights, investigations, john west, nestle, oceans, prawn cocktail, prawns, seafood, shrimp, sustainable development, thai union, tuna, UK supermarkets

John West owner Thai Union allegedly connected to forced labour and child labour - Greenpeace statement

Last edited 14 December 2015 at 12:10pm
14 December, 2015

An Associated Press investigation released today has found that Thai Union, owner of John West in the UK, has again been connected to forced labour, child labour and horrific working conditions in Thailand. The investigation followed trucks transporting prawns from the Gig Peeling Factory to major Thai exporting companies, and then tracked where the product ended up globally.

The investigation found that migrants, including children, were forced to work for little or no pay peeling prawns which ended up in the US, Europe, and Asia.

Article tagged as: child labour, john west, labour rights, prawns, Thai seafood industry, thai union, tuna

Nestle speaks out on human rights abuses in Thai seafood supply chain

Last edited 26 November 2015 at 4:25pm
26 November, 2015

In response to Nestle’s recent report which found evidence of human rights abuses and forced labour in its Thai seafood supply chains, Greenpeace’s Oceans Campaigner, Ariana Densham, said:

“Nestle is to be commended for taking the pretty remarkable step of speaking out publicly on labour and human rights abuses in its own seafood supply chain in Thailand.

Article tagged as: human rights, john west, nestle, not just tuna, Thai seafood industry, thai union, thailand

Greenpeace investigation reveals new incidents of forced labour on Thai-operated vessels

Last edited 4 November 2015 at 1:02pm
4 November, 2015
Bangkok, 4 November 2015 – John West owner, Thai Union Group, has not done enough to alleviate concerns over human rights abuses in the company’s tuna supply chain despite recent media scrutiny of its business operations, according to a Greenpeace investigation.

The report features new interviews with survivors of trafficking and forced labour in Indonesia who faced abuse and food deprivation on Thai-operated fishing vessels. These ships transferred their tuna and other fish to a Thai carrier vessel, Marine One, which is owned by Thailand’s Silver Sea Line Co. Ltd – the same company implicated in a recent Associated Press investigation for transporting seafood caught using forced labour to a Thai Union supplier.

Article tagged as: Fish Aggregation Devices [FADs], human rights, human trafficking, indonesia, john west, thai union, thailand, tuna

Greenpeace lifts the lid on John West’s tuna

Last edited 28 October 2015 at 8:56am
28 October, 2015


  • Giant tuna tin sculpture installed outside John West’s Liverpool HQ
  • Projected films show Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and the people of Liverpool slamming John West and its owner Thai Union over environmental destruction and links to human rights abuses

Wednesday 28th October, 2015, Liverpool - At 6.30am this morning Greenpeace activists installed an enormous, provocative, sculpture outside tuna company John West’s Liverpool HQ, to protest against the company’s destructive fishing practices and to highlight John West’s owner Thai Union’s links to human rights abuses.

Article tagged as: Fish Aggregation Devices [FADs], john west, liverpool, not just tuna, tuna

Customer outrage over tuna giants John West and Thai Union

Posted by Ariana Densham — 21 October 2015 at 10:56am - Comments
All rights reserved. Credit: Marie Derome
Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall on John West's broken sustainability promise

Tuna has finally gone mainstream, following the outcry in the media that John West* has broken its sustainability and traceability promises. 

We’ve reached millions of people, from This Morning with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Radio 2’s Jeremy Vine show, to The Times front page and countless other newspapers, everyone is outraged by the embarrassing progress John West has made meeting its sustainability promise to customers. 

Article tagged as: fads, fish, human rights, john west, oceans, Sustainability, thai union, tuna

John West: another broken promise

Last edited 14 October 2015 at 11:49am
14 October, 2015

**Update: John West has now amended its website to include Thailand in the menu of its can tracker, but the option does not allow customers to track the can, but instead asks them to email John West for further details.**

- Greenpeace investigation finds tuna cans with “100% traceable” label can’t be traced as John West claims

- In addition, thousands of John West tuna products in supermarkets found to come from Thailand – a country which is not an option in the company’s Can Tracker tool

- John West has responsibility to show customers full transparency, especially given international concerns over Thai fishing industry – which include environmental destruction and human rights abuses

- Greenpeace says John West must call on owners Thai Union to guarantee its supply chain is free from human rights abuses and destructive fishing practices

A Greenpeace investigation has laid bare John West’s empty promise over the “traceability” of its tuna.

Article tagged as: FAD, Fish Aggregation Devices [FADs], human rights, john west, labour rights, not just tuna, Sustainability, thai union, thailand, traceability, tuna

John West's broken promises

Posted by Ariana Densham — 12 October 2015 at 10:35am - Comments
All rights reserved. Credit: Emily Buchanan

It’s only been a few days since our tuna league table exposed John West’s broken promise to only source sustainable tuna, but it’s been making waves everywhere.  We’ve had celebrities like Gillian Anderson coming out in support of the campaign, and were even invited on This Morning with Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall to talk about how John West’s customers have been duped.

Article tagged as: ariana densham, changing tuna, destructive fishing, Dirty Tuna, FAD, Fish Aggregation Devices [FADs], hugh fearnley-whittingstall, john west, justtuna, league table, tuna

John West is breaking its promise to consumers and is still trashing the oceans for cheap tuna

Last edited 5 October 2015 at 9:15am
5 October, 2015

Greenpeace’s tuna league table for 2015 sees the UK’s largest tinned tuna brand, John West, sink to the bottom of the ranking, with a woeful 98% of its tuna caught using destructive and unsustainable fishing methods.

After promising consumers back in 2011 that 100% of its tuna would be sustainable by 2016, John West has managed only a dismal 2% – with nearly all of its tuna caught in nets using so-called Fish Aggregating Devices (FADs) which indiscriminately kill a host of other marine life, including sharks and even endangered sea turtles.

Article tagged as: fads, Fish aggregating devices, john west, not just tuna, princes, tuna, unsustainable fishing

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