Thai Union Demonstrates Commitment to Transparency, Taking Part in Ocean Disclosure Project Initiative

BANGKOK – April 29, 2021 – Demonstrating its ongoing commitment to transparency, Thai Union Group PCL is taking part in the Ocean Disclosure Project, a global platform where seafood businesses publicly share details on the sourcing of their seafood.

Thai Union’s involvement is aligned with the company’s global sustainability strategy, SeaChange®, and our commitment to traceability and transparency to improve the operational and sourcing practices of the entire seafood supply chain.

As part of its commitment to the Ocean Disclosure Project, Thai Union will publish its global supply chain data from its U.S., European and Asian supply chains. This will include details for both wild caught and farmed seafood along with information such as area of catch, area of production, fishing gear used, sustainability certifications and ratings. Stakeholders will be provided the access details to the Fishery Improvement Projects (FIPs) which are already published on FisheryProgress.org and the Marine Stewardship Council certified fisheries from which Thai Union sources seafood, providing readily available information about our projects and the sustainability and origin information about the source of our products.

“At Thai Union, we believe the transparency and traceability of sourcing is critical to making improvements across the global seafood industry,” said Dr. Darian McBain, Global Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability at Thai Union Group. “Through the Ocean Disclosure Project, stakeholders can gain a better understanding of ‘where’ the fish is sourced from, which then allows action to be taken to prevent Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, labor and human rights violations, social risks and marine ecosystem impacts.”

The Ocean Disclosure Project was launched in 2015 by Sustainable Fisheries Partnership to allow seafood companies such as retailers, suppliers and fish feed manufacturers to voluntarily disclose their wild-caught seafood sourcing information. Since then, the project has grown to include disclosure of farmed seafood sourcing information as well. Today, more than 30 from Europe, North America and Australia have taken part, with companies from the Americas and Asia expected to participate in coming years.

Supply chain transparency has long been a commitment of Thai Union, which has taken a wide range of actions to support this, including:

  • Publishing, with support from WWF, the Sourcing Transparency: Wild Caught Fish and Shellfish report in 2018 for European supply chains
  • Including additional species in the Seafood Sourcing Locations map published in the 2019 Sustainability Report, based on the top species sourced by volume
  • Publishing an independently assessed report of progress against the 2017 Greenpeace Agreement
  • Publishing an independently assessed report of progress on Thai Union’s work on ethical recruitment
  • During the partnership with WWF, Thai Union shared all European Union supply chain data and completed an annual environmental assessment of sourcing and published annual progress against the partnership commitments
  • Being a founding member of SeaBOS, which has aims to increase traceability and transparency in the seafood industry
  • Being a signatory of the World Economic Forum’s Tuna Traceability Declaration that aims to stop Illegal Unreported and Unregulated tuna from entering supply chains.

“We’re thrilled that Thai Union is showing leadership on transparency by participating in the Ocean Disclosure Project, broadening our efforts to help seafood companies around the world. The publication of Thai Union’s global seafood sourcing information demonstrates their continued commitment to transparency and responsible sourcing of seafood,” said Blake Lee Harwood, SFP’s Chief Programs Officer.

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Thai Union Group

Thai Union Group PCL is the world’s seafood leader, bringing high quality, healthy, tasty and innovative seafood products to customers across the world for more than 40 years.

Today, Thai Union is regarded as one of the world’s leading seafood producers and is one of the largest producers of shelf-stable tuna products with annual sales exceeding THB 132.4 billion (US$ 4.2 billion) and a global workforce of more than 44,000 people who are dedicated to pioneering sustainable, innovative seafood products.

The company’s global brand portfolio includes market-leading international brands such as Chicken of the Sea, John West, Petit Navire, Parmentier, Mareblu, King Oscar, and Rügen Fisch, Thai-leading brands SEALECT, Fisho, Qfresh, Monori, Bellotta and Marvo, and ingredient and supplement brands UniQ™BONE, UniQ™DHA and ZEAvita.

As a company committed to innovation and globally responsible behavior, Thai Union is proud to be a member of the United Nations Global Compact, and a founding member of the International Seafood Sustainability Foundation (ISSF). In 2015, Thai Union introduced its SeaChange® sustainability strategy. Find out more at seachangesustainability.org. Thai Union’s on-going work on sustainability issues was recognized when the company was listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) for the seventh consecutive year in 2020, and ranked number two in the world on the Food Products Industry Index. Thai Union was also named to the FTSE4Good Emerging Index for the fifth straight year in 2020.

About the Ocean Disclosure Project:

Established in 2015 by Sustainable Fisheries Partnership, the Ocean Disclosure Project (ODP) is a global platform for voluntary disclosure of seafood sourcing. The ODP is dedicated to increasing transparency in seafood by encouraging companies to publicly report on the seafood they source. The ODP provides a common template through which companies can report the fisheries and fish farms they source from, alongside information on the provenance, stock status and management, and environmental impact (including impacts on protected, endangered, and threatened species, bycatch, and benthic habitats, marine inputs for fish feed, and farming impacts on wild species and water quality) of these sources. This information is used to create annual profiles reflecting the company’s sourcing from the previous year, which are then published on the ODP website. Visit us at www.oceandisclosureproject.org.