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For years, John West has been promoting a tool on its website that encourages customers to ‘Discover the story behind your can’, tracing the fish back to the vessel that caught it by entering codes printed on its products.
But Greenpeace has found that despite some products being labelled ‘100% traceable’, accompanied by an arrow pointing to the company’s website, the website’s tool provides absolutely no way of tracing the cans.
John West ‘trashing oceans’ for cheap tuna’ – John West accused of breaking its promise to consumers: only 2% of its tuna is sustainable
The crowdsourced investigation also discovered that thousands of John West tuna products in supermarkets across the UK are from Thailand – a country not even acknowledged as a source on the company’s website.
While the company claims to be ‘working’ to update the traceability tool, it has had over four years to do so, and while products from Ghana and the Seychelles are searchable, Thailand is not even listed as an option.
Over 2,400 different cans and packets were found with codes linking them to three different canneries in Thailand, all run by John West’s owners Thai Union – the largest tinned tuna company in the world. All three canneries were in the Samut Sakhon region of the country, an area which has been linked to both the use of unsustainable tuna purse seiners and human rights abuses.
‘John West promises to tell ‘the story behind every can’ – but it’s keeping schtum on its Thai cans, when these are precisely the ones consumers deserve to have the clearest information on.
‘The Thai fishing industry has come under fire recently – whether for its fishing practices or for labour rights and human rights abuses – including from the US government and the EU. A recent investigation also linked John West’s owners Thai Union to human rights abuses in its supply chain.
‘All of this shows just why John West has such a huge responsibility to not only meet its own sustainability commitments, but also to call on Thai Union to guarantee its supply chains are free from human rights abuses.’
Ariana Densham, Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace
Greenpeace has urged John West to deliver on its promise to customers and commit to full traceability of its products.
The charity has also called on Thai Union to guarantee its supply chains are free from human rights abuses, and use its position within the Thai fishing industry to drive out the exploitation of the oceans and workers.
‘When a company like John West puts ‘100% traceable’ on its tins, consumers quite rightly expect to be able to take their word for it. But how are consumers expected to trust anything John West says when it not only breaks its sustainability promise, but then breaks a second promise by making false claims on its tins?
‘Well here’s one thing you can clearly track from sea to shelf: John West’s disdain for its customers. Consumers should tell John West and its owner Thai Union that there’s simply no appetite for unjust and unsustainable tuna in the UK or around the world.
‘John West has a duty to tell its customers the story behind these cans from Thailand – and to call on its owners Thai Union to ensure its supply chains are free from human rights abuses and to drive out the industry’s exploitation of the oceans and those who work on them.’
Ariana Densham, Oceans Campaigner at Greenpeace
Last week, John West came last in Greenpeace’s 2015 tuna league table, having broken its sustainability promise to source 50% of its tuna sustainably by the end of 2014.
Despite a pledge to be 100% sustainable by the end of 2016, the tuna company has so far managed just 2%.
Click here to find out more about Greenpeace’s #JustTuna campaign
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