"No response from Lidl on poverty wages in shrimp industry", 30 Apr 2015

Business & Human Rights Resource Centre published an article on our shrimp report last week and invited all supermarkets mentioned in our report – and linked to the issue of poverty wages in the Asian shrimp industry – to respond. Lidl, one of the supermarkets in Europe that sells Asian shrimp, did not respond. The company is one of the largest supermarkets in Europe, which is why Fairfood is currently encouraging the company to use its bargaining power for something good: to pay living wages in their supply chains. We are disappointed that Lidl told Business & Human Rights Resource Centre that they “had no further comment; it previously responded to Fairfood’s public action calling for a living wage”...Lidl responded to Fairfood's [report] repeating what they said to us before: they agree that living wages are important, but that it is complicated to ensure that all workers in their supply chains are paid a living wage. Fairfood believes that living on these poverty wages is much more complicated. Now it seems that instead of taking steps to address living wage, Lidl is choosing not to act at all.