According to Greenpeace and its latest report, 13 Indonesian tuna canneries do not meet the internationally agreed upon standards for processing their products.
Three criteria were used to evaluate the canneries in the NGO’s “Tuna Cannery Ranking for Indonesia and the Philippines” report, including: traceability; sustainability and equity; and employee wellbeing. As the environmentalist group saw its research develop, it discovered that “many big tuna brands do not have any control in their supply chain,” according to Arifsyah Nasution, a marine campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia, as quoted by Jakarta Globe.
Because of this, Nasution noted that these canneries “can’t trace the accuracy of tuna distribution from the fishing boats to the canneries and then the consumers.”
“It’s no wonder these companies had a hard time to meet the traceability, sustainability and equity criteria,” Nasution said.
The study shows that Indonesia tuna canners did not do enough to ensure that fishing practices were legal and sustainable, said Greenpeace.
The 13 canning companies in question, that were named by the NGO, include:
- Delta Pasific Indotuna
- Samudra Mandiri Sentosa
- Sinar Pure Foods International
- Pasific Harvest
- Bali Maya Permai Food Canning Industry
- Avila Prima Intra Makmur
- Rd Pacific International
- Aneka Tuna Indonesia
- Banyuwangi Cannery Indonesia
- Juifa International Foods
- Carvinna Trijaya Makmur
- Deho Canning
- Maya Muncar
Indonesia is the generator of 4.6 percent of all canned tuna exports; the global market was worth USD 8.1 billion in 2013, Greenpeace said. Most of the canned tuna products exported from Indonesia typically find their way to markets in Europe, North America, Japan and the Middle East.
