Thai Union, a major supplier of prawns to Australian supermarkets and many other international grocery chains, has been implicated in a child labour and forced labour scandal.
Gig Peeling Factory, a prawn peeling facility near Bangkok that is owned by Thai Union and supplies Woolworths, Coles and Aldi, has been named in an Associated Press investigation.
Coles now says its frozen prawns do not come from the factory at the centre of the scandal, according to Fairfax Media.
The major supermarket chains have said they are now conducting investigations into their supply chain, while some consumers are taking to social media, calling on them to cancel their contracts with Thai Union.
In September, the company made the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices for Emerging Markets, which is based on environmental, economic and social criteria, for the second year running.
The company now says it plans to cease working with all external pre-processors and will bring all shrimp processing operations in-house to provide it will “full oversight of all processing stages”.
Thai Union president and chief executive Thiraphong Chansiri said: "This is a positive step towards our goal of ridding the Thai seafood sector of illegal labour practices. We are committed to leading improvements in the industry and we hope this reminds all operators that they must remain focused on promoting good labour practices – the abuse of human rights must not be tolerated.”
