"Canada's grocery chains stocked with tomato products connected to Chinese forced labour", 29 October 2021

Marketplace, in collaboration with the Investigative Reporting Project Italy — a non-profit media association — and The Guardian, found some of the world's biggest grocers, including ones here in Canada, are stocked with tomato products that could be tied to [alleged] forced labour in Xinjiang [...]

Marketplace found Canadian grocery stores such as Loblaws, Sobeys and Whole Foods work with Italian processors who conducted business with Xinjiang companies.

Antonio Petti Fu Pasquale S.p.A. — currently under investigation by Italian authorities for allegedly passing off foreign tomatoes as 100 per cent Italian — is a major processor that makes private label pastes and sauces for Canada, the U.S. and the U.K.

Whole Foods said that the tomatoes in its "365 Concentrated Tomato Paste are grown and processed in Italy" and that it has third-party audits and raw material traceability records that support their claim. [...] Following CBC's inquiries, Whole Foods said it pulled its 365 Double Concentrated Tomato Paste off store shelves and has cut ties with Petti as a supplier. [...]

Bosa Foods said it had been with Petti for many years and that the processor has assured the grocer that its code of ethics complied with internationally recognized human and labour rights standards.

Petti admitted it used Chinese tomatoes, but only for products destined for the African market. 

Petti told CBC in an email that it "has a code of ethics to which it constantly strives to adapt commercial relations with foreign partners to respect human rights."

Zenz said these companies have "found a way to still make a profit off this oppression."

"It means that they are using a product that carries a high risk of forced labour and then they say, 'We don't sell this to the West because Western countries might have a problem with that, but it's fine to sell it to Africans,'" said Zenz.

CBC also investigated some of Sobeys' and Loblaws' private brand tomato products — Compliments and President's Choice, respectively — and found that both are made by Italian processor La Doria, which, according to Italian import records, had purchased tomato paste from Xinjiang as recently as May 2021.

Loblaws told CBC in an email that it shares "concern about labour conditions throughout the global supply chain and takes these matters very seriously."

Loblaws and Sobeys did not indicate whether they would sever their relationship with La Doria, despite the apparent contravention of their companies' stances on human rights violations by their suppliers. [...]