Charoen Pokphand Foods
Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited, (Thai: บริษัท เจริญโภคภัณฑ์อาหาร จำกัด (มหาชน)) a company of the Charoen Pokphand Group, is an agro-industrial and food conglomerate headquartered in Thailand. It is one of the world's largest producers of feed[1][2] and shrimp,[3] and is also a global top three producer of poultry[4] and pork.
Company type
17 January 1978
Adirek Sripratak (CEO)
501,507 million baht (2017)
15,259 million baht (2017)
593,497 million baht (2017)
126,341 (2017)
Charoen Pokphand Group Co., Ltd. (largest single shareholder)
Approximately 64 percent of its revenue came from overseas operations, with 30 percent from its home market of Thailand, and six percent from export operations. It recently acquired Bellisio Foods, one of the largest frozen food suppliers in the United States, for US$1 billion, as well as Westbridge Foods, a major British poultry producer with turnover of over £340 Million [5]
The company's core businesses are livestock and aquaculture. Livestock operations include chicken broilers, chicken layers, ducks, and swine. In aquaculture, the two main marine animals are shrimp and fish.
Financials[edit]
Calendar year 2017 results: revenues of 501,507 million baht, net income of 15,259 million baht, and total assets of 593,497 million baht.[6] It employed 126,341 persons in 2017.[7]
Controversies[edit]
Slavery allegations[edit]
In June 2014, after a several-month-long investigation, the British newspaper The Guardian claimed that Charoen Pokphand Foods (CPF) purchases fishmeal, which it then feeds to its farmed prawns, from suppliers that own, operate, or buy from fishing boats manned with slaves. The Guardian claimed that after the slaves are bought "for as little as £250", the working conditions on those boats included forced labor with 20-hour work days, forced drug use, starvation, and executions.[11]
In July 2014, CP Foods hosted a three-day meeting to create a task force on the issue, with representatives from retailers, local government authorities, and non-governmental organisations such as Oxfam and the Environmental Justice Foundation.[12] The progress made at this meeting is difficult to ascertain, as the original newspaper, The Guardian, has not posted any additional stories and the company website's sustainability page[13] says "For the latest general update covering our approach and achievements" to read a page from December 2013, which promises "a further progress update in Q1 2014."[14]
The president and CEO of Charoen Pokphand subsequently posted a "Statement to Shareholders" vowing to purchase only from certified processing plants, only acquire product from certified Thai fisheries, and that supply chain "...fishing vessels, fishmeal processing plants...must be certified by Thailand's Labor Standard or have been audited...by an external agency (Third Party)...."[15]
In Australia, Woolworths stocks only CPF-Vietnam products and Metcash, wholesale supplier to Independent Grocers of Australia (IGA), has eliminated CPF SKUs from their inventory.[16]
In January 2017, the United States District Court, Northern District of California ruled on multiple grounds in favour of CP Foods in relation to litigation brought against them and others, which claimed damages related to the alleged presence of human rights abuses in the supply chain for Thai shrimp. The Court's order - dismissal with prejudice - bars the plaintiffs from bringing such claims again.