Thai Union Group

No leading practices were identified for the company in the governance and strategy measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the environment measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the nutrition measurement area.

No leading practices were identified for the company in the social inclusion measurement area.

Sustainable development strategy
Thai Union’s sustainable development strategy, SeaChange, contains time-bound targets (GHG emissions, sustainable sourcing, water consumption, workers’ injuries). However, some of these targets have already been achieved and do not cover all issues in its materiality assessment. Further, the company has an opportunity to publish objectives and targets related to nutrition.

Governance and accountability for sustainable development
Thai Union has established a Global Sustainability Committee. This is responsible for the implementation of the company’s sustainable development strategy and is chaired by a member of the board, the global director of sustainability. However, no public information was found on whether the company’s remuneration policy is linked to the achievement of sustainability goals.

Stakeholder engagement
Thai Union discloses the outcomes of its stakeholder engagement and their integration into its sustainability strategy. It also demonstrates that its stakeholder engagement covers sustainability topics across all three benchmark dimensions (environment, nutrition and social inclusion) across its value chain. However, there remains an opportunity for the company to clarify its process for identifying its stakeholders.

Scope 1, 2, and 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
Thai Union does not report on its scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions in an aggregated way but by business unit. Further, in its SeaChange strategy, it has set a reduction target for its factories’ emissions. No scope 3 emissions reporting and targets were found. The company has a significant opportunity to improve its approach to mitigate GHG emissions and set company-wide science-based targets for its scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions.

Sustainable fishing and aquaculture
Thai Union’s targets and reporting on sustainable fishing and aquaculture are uneven, varying according to species, target market and product branding. As such, no company-wide time-bound targets across all portfolio or markets were found. The company reports that is achieving its target to source 75% of its branded tuna products from fisheries that are Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified or that are from fishery improvement projects (FIPs). The company furthermore discloses metrics on its sustainable sourcing performance but has a clear opportunity to clarify and increase its ambitions on this topic.

Water use
Although Thai Union reports it achieved a water-use intensity target (quantity of water used by ton of products) in 2020, it does not have any further time-bound targets to decrease overall water withdrawals.

Animal welfare
Thai Union has an animal welfare policy but does not explicitly address many animal welfare issues specific to its animals or seafood. At the same time, the company is involved in efforts to eliminate shrimp eyestalk ablation and has certifications that cover animal welfare for a part of its portfolio.

Antibiotics use and growth-promoting substances
In its Responsible Sourcing Guideline on aquaculture, Thai Union states that suppliers must ensure any antibiotics critically important for human medicine and growth-promoting substances are proactively prohibited. However, the company does not report on the use of antibiotics, providing an opportunity for it to improve its disclosures and demonstrate its performance.

Availability of healthy foods
Thai Union’s Commitment on Health and Wellness refers to calories, sodium and fat. The company has also launched products with no cholesterol. However, it does not disclose metrics on the impact of these activities. It has an opportunity to disclose reformulation efforts regarding the categories mentioned in its commitment.

Accessibility and affordability of healthy foods
Thai Union does not disclose a commitment and activities to improve the accessibility and affordability of healthy foods for vulnerable groups. Further, the company has an opportunity to publicly report on efforts that ensure its healthy products reach low-income groups.

Clear and transparent labelling
While Thai Union commits to complying with national regulations regarding labelling as well as providing nutritional information on key relevant nutrients through back-of-pack labels, it has an opportunity to make nutritional information more visible to consumers through the adoption of front-of-pack labels and/or any other consumer-facing nutrition label.

Food safety
Thai Union reports that it complies with national regulations, good hygiene practices and the hazard analysis and critical control point (HACCP) system. It is, however, unclear to what extent its operations are certified to recognised food safety schemes.

Forced labour
Thai Union prohibits forced labour and requires that its suppliers adhere to the same standard by codifying it in a supplier code of conduct. It also requires its suppliers not to retain workers’ personal documents or restrict workers’ freedom of movement. Further, the company has a monitoring process in place for its operations and supply chain, but it is unclear whether it includes regular monitoring of the company’s full supply chain.

Living wage
While Thai Union has an extensive policy on fair wages, no explicit commitment to paying a living wage is disclosed.

Health and safety of vulnerable groups
Thai Union recognises the specific health and safety risks to migrant workers, indicating that trainings and equipment must be covered by its suppliers. However, the company does not assess the health and safety risks to vulnerable groups and support activities that improve their health and safety.

Farmer and fisher productivity and resilience
As part of its ongoing commitment to give back to the communities in which it operates, Thai Union has signed a memorandum of understanding with two community groups in Songkhla, Thailand to provide them with a solar-powered fish-house dryer. This will double the amount of fish they can sell by shortening the drying time and greatly increasing the quality of the product. The company reports on the possible impact of the project, not on its actual impact

Thai Union commits to respecting human rights and the ILO core labour rights. The company demonstrates a human rights due diligence process, which includes the identification and assessment of human rights risks and impacts, and takes action to prevent, mitigate or remediate its salient human rights issues in its operations and supply chain. As part of this process, the company provides grievance mechanisms that are accessible to employees and external stakeholders such as communities.

Thai Union publicly commits to respecting the health and safety of workers and discloses the proportion of its total direct operations workforce by gender. Although committing to comply with local legislation regarding working hours in its labor code of conduct, the company does not state that a workweek may never exceed 60 hours including overtime in all of its locations. Similarly, Thai Union addresses collective bargaining in its policies but does not demonstrate how it works with suppliers to ensure their workers can access this right. While the company addresses living wages and support for gender equality and women’s empowerment fundamentals, no commitments on these issues were found.

Thai Union publicly commits to protecting personal data and has a privacy statement on the use of personal data. The company also publicly prohibits bribery and corruption and takes steps to identify and address bribery and corruption risks and incidents. Thai Union has a tax strategy, approved by the highest governance body, but does not clearly disclose the amount of corporate income tax paid on a country-by-country basis. The company lacks a publicly available policy setting out its approach to lobbying and political engagement.