By letter to the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF), the Southern Shrimp Alliance today renewed its request that Rongcheng Sanyue Foodstuff Co., Ltd. be added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act’s (UFLPA) Entity List.
In July of this year, the FLETF identified seafood as a high priority sector for enforcement under the UFLPA. That announcement followed the addition of Shandong Meijia Group Co., Ltd. (a.k.a. Rizhao Meijia Group), a seafood processor based in Shandong province, to the UFLPA’s Entity List in June.
Like Shandong Meijia, Rongcheng Sanyue is a seafood processor based in Shandong province. And like Shandong Meijia, Rongcheng Sanyue exports Argentine red shrimp to global markets, including the United States.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance first formally requested the inclusion of both Shandong Meijia and Rongcheng Sanyue on the UFLPA’s Entity List in January. The Southern Shrimp Alliance is now renewing its request regarding Rongcheng Sanyue because publicly-available information indicates that the company has refused to allow U.S. government officials access to its facilities in China but nevertheless has continued to export Argentine red shrimp to the U.S. market.
Because Rongcheng Sanyue has barred U.S. government officials from inspecting its production plant, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added the company to Import Alert 99-32 (Detention Without Physical Examination of Human and Animal Food Products from Foreign Establishments Refusing FDA Inspection) in June 2023. Despite being prohibited from exporting shrimp to the U.S. market, the West Coast Division of the FDA reported refusing an entry line of shrimp shipped by Rongcheng Sanyue in September of this year. Bills of lading data indicate that the goods description for this shipment was “frozen Argentine red shrimp HLSO, easy peel.” Moreover, bills of lading data indicate that Rongcheng Sanyue has exported at least another three containers of Argentine red shrimp to U.S. ports since the FDA refusal.
Rongcheng Sanyue is one of forty-two (42) Chinese companies on the FDA’s Import Alert 99-32 for refusing to allow inspection of their facilities. No other country in the world has more than four companies included on that list (Mexico has four companies listed; India has three). Of the Chinese companies listed, at least ten appear to be seafood processors or exporters. And of these companies, four, including Rongcheng Sanyue, are located in Shandong Province.
“Rongcheng Sanyue has prohibited our government from inspecting its processing plant but still sells seafood into the U.S. market,” said John Williams, the executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “If anyone in our industry told the FDA to take a hike, that company would be immediately shut down. But for Rongcheng Sanyue, blowing off the FDA has allowed the company to conceal any benefit obtained from the Chinese government’s oppression of the Uyghur minority without consequence. That’s not right and we ask that the FLETF take immediate action to include Rongcheng Sanyue on the UFLPA’s Entity List.”
Read the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s December 30, 2024 letter to the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/12/Petition-for-Rongcheng-Sanyue-Foodstuff-Co.-Ltd.s-Inclusion-on-UFLPA-Entity-List-FINAL.pdf
Review the FLETF’s July 2024 update to the Strategy to Prevent the Importation of Goods Mined, Produced, or Manufactured with Forced Labor in the People’s Republic of China: https://www.dhs.gov/uflpa-strategy
Read the Southern Shrimp Alliance’s January 29, 2024 letter to the Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force here: https://shrimpalliance.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/01/SSA-Petition-UFLPA-Entity-List-cc-Jan-29-2024.pdf
Learn more about the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act here: https://www.cbp.gov/trade/forced-labor/UFLPA
Read The Outlaw Ocean Project’s “Crimes Along the Coast: The Uyghurs Forced to Process the World’s Fish” (Oct. 9, 2023) here: https://www.theoutlawocean.com/investigations/china-the-superpower-of-seafood/the-uyghurs-forced-to-process-the-worlds-fish/