Target and Costco no longer sell this product due to suspected forced labor

Recently, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals ( PETA) issued a statement saying that the Thailand-based Chaokoh company has been exploiting and forcing monkeys to work. After investigating the beverage's connection to forced monkey labor, several online platforms such as Target and Costco have decided to stop selling the Chaokoh coconut milk.

26,000 stores have stopped selling Chaokoh coconut milk

Chaokoh is headquartered in Thailand and is one of the world's largest companies that produces coconut milk and coconut products . Its coconut milk products are sold in 36 countries including the United States, China, Japan and Australia .

It is reported that many US online retail platforms, including Target, Wegmans , Costco , Food Lion , Stop & Shop , have stopped selling the brand's products. According to incomplete statistics, more than 26,000 stores online and offline in the United States have stopped selling the brand's products, but supermarkets including Publix, Kroger and Albertsons are still selling them.

Several retailers said: "Given that the allegations against Chaokoh Coconut Milk have been proven multiple times, we have decided to remove its products from our assortment." A PETA spokesperson wrote in a statement: "We firmly believe that animals should be treated humanely and expect those who do business with us to do the same."

Chaokoh monkey exploitation incidents occur frequently

In 2019, PETA conducted its first investigation into monkey exploitation, and the results showed that monkeys were used to pick coconuts in many coconut plantations in Thailand. The uproar caused by the monkey slavery incident also prompted the Thai government to respond, saying that it would no longer use monkeys for manual labor.

But a second PETA investigation found that producers were still using monkey labor and were discussing ways to hide the monkeys until the auditors left , or to hire monkey contractors who would bring in the monkeys only during harvest season.

Two undercover investigations by PETA found that many monkeys are controlled by metal collars and chains from birth, and farmers train them to be coconut picking machines , forcing them to pick about 1,000 coconuts a day.

Additionally, the monkeys are subject to "circus-style performances" for tourists . When not being forced to pick coconuts for tourists or perform in circus-style acts, the animals are shackled, tied to old tires, or confined to cages barely larger than their bodies.

It is reported that in Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Indonesia, there is indeed a custom of training monkeys to pick coconuts, and it has been passed down for hundreds of years, but now it exists more as a tourist performance.

In fact, both humans and animals have equal rights to survive. Sellers need to pay attention to the fact that they need to carefully understand the products before listing them. Otherwise, such issues will not only affect the sales of the products, but also have a serious impact on the seller's reputation.

Target

Costco

Forced labor