International meal-delivery giant HelloFresh has been accused of using coconut milk obtained using forced monkey labour in Thailand. An investigation by Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) has revealed that the animals are chained, whipped, beaten, and forced to spend long hours picking coconuts.
Peta cites animal abuse at 57 coconut processing operations in nine provinces of Thailand, and the organisation has called for a boycott of the meal-delivery service until it adopts more ethic sourcing practices.
“Peta Asia visited facilities in the top coconut-producing provinces in the country, finding nine of them implicated in monkey labour, including two brokers supplying to Suree and one broker to Aroy-D, which produce coconut milk for HelloFresh,” Peta told Inside FMCG.
“The rampant abuse of primates is going unchecked because Thai coconut industry insiders deliberately hide monkey labour in their supply chain.”
HelloFresh operates in the US, the UK, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Australia, Austria, Switzerland, Canada, New Zealand, Sweden, France, Denmark, Norway, Italy and Japan. Last year, HelloFresh delivered almost 1 billion meals and reached 7.2 million active customers.
In a statement to FMCG, the company claims it received “written confirmation” from its suppliers that they do not obtain coconut milk from slave monkeys.
“HelloFresh strictly condemns any use of monkey labour in its supply chain, and we take a hard position of not procuring from suppliers or selling coconut products that have been found to use monkey labour,” said the company. “We have written confirmation from all our suppliers globally that they do not engage in these practices.”
The statement suggests that HelloFresh is satisfied with the declaration provided by suppliers and did not cite any third-party auditing processes to ensure independent verification of the suppliers’ written statements.
This is Peta’s third investigation into the Thai coconut industry, and the organisation said each one has proven that suffering, inadequate living conditions, fear, and violence against monkeys are “the norm” in the coconut trade. The group met with the largest coconut milk companies, Chaokoh and Aroy-D and Suree, which were the subject of previous audits.
“The monkeys – mostly Macaques – are snatched from their mothers as babies and caged for their entire lives. Once their training is complete, the monkeys are sold to coconut pickers,” said Peta.
“An employee on one farm revealed that while the monkeys are climbing trees, the animals sometimes incur broken bones from falling out of the trees or being violently yanked down or whipped.”
Asked by Inside FMCG why Peta had singled-out HelloFresh, the organisation replied: “Peta wants all companies to ban coconut milk from Thailand, but despite knowing for years about the rampant use of monkey labour in the Thai coconut industry, and after new footage implicating HelloFresh’s own coconut milk provider, the company has refused to do the right thing by moving its coconut milk supply chain out of Thailand.”
Aside from Suree and Aroy-D, the investigation also linked forced monkey labour to Chokoh and Ampol Food, Cocoburi, Tropicana Oil, Thai Pure, Ampawa, and Edward & Sons Trading Co., among others.
While monkey slavery is common in Thailand, it is not practised in other countries from which companies can source coconut milk or juice, such as nearby Vietnam.
