Chinese fishing company accused of environmental and labour abuses

A UK campaign group has accused one of China’s biggest fishing companies of environmental and labour abuses, raising questions for major seafood distributors in Japan and Taiwan that have purchased its catches.

The allegations from the Environmental Justice Foundation target Zhejiang Ocean Family, a company owned by billionaire Lu Weiding that the non-governmental organisation said controlled nearly 15 per cent of Chinese tuna production.

ZOF has supplied some of the world’s biggest international seafood distributors, including Taiwanese group FCF and Japanese trading house Mitsubishi.

In a report, the EJF alleged that most of the 12 ZOF-operated ships it had tracked had killed protected species, including dolphins, sharks and false killer whales. “Several species of sharks were caught and slaughtered at an industrial scale across the fleet,” said the report, which followed a four-year investigation.

The EJF also alleged there were labour abuses on ZOF vessels, including physical violence and workers being required to pay bonds equivalent to three or four months’ wages before starting work. The researchers said the practice, known as “debt bondage”, could “trap fishers from leaving the job even when experiencing abuses”.

ZOF denied the claims made by the EJF. It said the report lacked “solid evidence” and the company has its “own evidence” proving the NGO’s claims are false.

“We’ve read the report and we firmly believe its contents are not true, not comprehensive,” a spokesperson for the company told the Financial Times on Thursday. “There is no illegal fishing in our operations.”

The company said it would use lawyers, academic institutions, international fisheries organisations and other professional organisations to “investigate and refute” the report’s accusations.

China’s fishing fleet, the world’s biggest by size and catch volume, has become a point of tension between Beijing and Washington. The US increasingly views illicit fishing as a national security concern.

China has for years rejected claims its vessels are involved in illegal fishing. However, according to the EJF, Chinese officials have said they will investigate the allegations against ZOF.

Mitsubishi said its fisheries units would review the EJF claims, a move it warned could lead to a further review of its relationship with ZOF.

“We believe that respect for human rights is fundamental to conducting a diverse range of businesses globally . . . If it is true that ZOF engaged in the practices described in the article, we find it to be truly regrettable, and we will demand that ZOF implements corrective measures,” the trading house said.

Mitsubishi said that since 2017 it had conducted annual surveys of its tuna suppliers. In 2022 it established guidelines for tuna procurement intended to improve resource management and traceability as well as to prevent abuses of human rights and illegal fishing.

FCF said it would investigate the EJF claims, adding it took “all reports seriously” and enforced a “zero-tolerance policy” against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing as well as forced labour.

“Our approach includes thorough investigations and decisive actions,” FCF said.

Mitsubishi and FCF declined to comment on whether they were currently buying from ZOF.

Steve Trent, founder and chief executive of the EJF, said other east Asian countries with large fisheries sectors — including Taiwan, South Korea and Japan — had made some progress in strengthening oversight after similar allegations of widespread environmental and labour abuses in recent years.

Trent said China’s government and Chinese companies, including ZOF, have previously resisted calls for better transparency and improved policing of the fishing industry.

Trent said there seemed to be in China an “overarching policy of denial and turning a blind eye”, adding that international distributors and retailers had to “exert appropriate due diligence and make sure that this product is not entering their supply chain if it’s tainted with these crimes and abuses”.

ZOF is part of the Wanxiang Group, a conglomerate controlled by Lu that also includes a large car-parts manufacturing business with a long-standing presence in the US.

Lu, a member of China’s ruling Communist party, is vice-chair of the All-China Federation of Industry and Commerce and has served as a delegate to the National People’s Congress, the country’s rubber-stamp parliament.

The Chinese foreign ministry and agriculture ministry did not respond to requests for comment.

Additional reporting by Kana Inagaki in Tokyo