Nestle and Mars pledge to clean up pet food supply chains

Swiss food giant Nestle SA and U.S. candy and pet food company Mars have made a commitment to take steps to ensure their pet food supply chains are free from human rights abuses and illegally caught seafood.

Nestle and Mars, the makers of Pedigree and Purina pet food have made a statement that they would reduce or eliminate seafood that has been moved by fishing companies from one vessel to another in a practice that enables ships to stay at sea longer.

Nestle has pledged ban on transshipment at sea in its supply chains, while Mars has decided to suspend the use of transshipped products if its seafood suppliers did not tackle problems with the practice.

Transshipment is a process that provides an opportunity for vessels to unload illegally caught seafood into supply chains, and allows ships to conceal abuses against crew members away from port.

Jack Scott, head of sustainability for Nestle Purina PetCare Inc., said, "Over the past several years, Nestle and Greenpeace have worked together to strengthen Nestle's policies governing the procurement and responsible sourcing of seafood."

In a statement, mars said that it recognised the risks of transshipment, and was committed to working with its suppliers to remedy the problems.

Isabelle Aelvoet, global sustainability director of Mars Petcare, said, “But if we cannot resolve these issues to our satisfaction quickly, we will seek to end the use of transshipped products in our supply chains until these serious problems are fixed.”

There has been an increasing pressure on International companies from consumers and governments to be transparent about how and where their products are sourced amid greater awareness of abuses in supply chains.

According to Greenpeace, the move by the world's two largest pet food companies would put "significant" pressure on suppliers to end labor abuses.