Southern Shrimp Alliance Petitions for Chinese Seafood Processors to Be on UFLPA Entity List

The Southern Shrimp Alliance formally petitioned for the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force to add eight Chinese processing companies to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act's Entity List.

The alliance, which publicized its request, noted that the nonprofit Outlaw Ocean Project (see 2401110068) offered "significant evidence" that these firms employ transferred Uyghur labor:

• Weihai Wendeng Xinghe Food Co.
• Yantai Longwin Food Co.
• Yantai Sanko Fisheries Co.
• The Chishan Group Co., along with its subsidiaries Shandong Haidu Ocean Product Co. and Rongcheng Haibo Seafood Co.
• The Shandong Meijia Group, along with its subsidiaries Rizhao Jiayuan Food Co. and Rizhao Meijia Keyuan Food Co.
• Qingdao Tianyuan Aquatic Foodstuffs Co.
• Qingdao Lian Yang Aquatic Products Co.
• The Rongsense Group / Shandong Rongxin Aquatic Food Group, along with its subsidiaries Rizhao Rirong Aquatic Food Co. and Rizhao Rongxing Food Co.

"Additionally, given significant evidence that Uyghur forced labor is not only present in the seafood processing industry in China, but is actively sought out by processors, we write also to request that the FLETF move quickly to include seafood as a high-priority sector for enforcement," the group wrote.

The alliance also complained that Argentinian and Chilean caught shrimp are processed in China and then exported to the U.S. with the country of origin of Argentina or Chile, rather than China. "The millions of pounds of South American shrimp exported from China enters the U.S. as a product of where it was harvested, meaning that there is no indication given in our official import statistics that this shrimp went through a Chinese processing plant," they wrote.