Charoen Pokphand Foods
Charoen Pokphand Foods Public Company Limited a company of the Charoen Pokphand Group, is an agro-industrial and food conglomerate headquartered in Thailand. Approximately 64 percent of its revenue came from overseas operations, with 30 percent from its home market of Thailand, and six percent from export operations. It recently acquired Bellisio Foods, one of the largest frozen food suppliers in the United States, for US$1 billion, as well as Westbridge Foods, a major British poultry producer with turnover of over £340 Million
The company's core businesses are livestock and aquaculture. Livestock operations include chicken broilers, chicken layers, ducks, and swine. In aquaculture, the two main marine animals are shrimp and fish.
Financials
2017 results: revenues of 501,507 million baht, net income of 15,259 million baht, and total assets of 593,497 million baht. It employed 126,341 persons in 2017.Operations
Livestock
CPF's livestock business includes broilers, layers, swine, and ducks. Products can be divided into three main categories, animal feed, breeders, and meat and food products.Animal feed
The company produces livestock feed in the forms of concentrate, powder and pellets for broilers, layers, swine, and ducks. The feed is distributed by more than 600 sales representatives throughout Thailand. A portion of the livestock feed is sold directly to large animal farms.Animal breeding
The company researches and develops natural animal breeds. The goal is to obtain breeds that are disease-free and suited to the breeding environment in Thailand. The company produces parent stock broiler chicks, parent stock layer chicks, parent stock swine, broiler chicks, layer chicks, layers, and piglets for distribution to animal farms and domestic sales representatives.Grandparent stock used in livestock breeding is imported from abroad to breed parent stock which are then raised on the company's farms.
The NGO World Animal Protection succeeded in persuading CPF, a major pork producer, to end the use of uses sow stalls in their pork production process by 2025. The practice confines sows in cages no bigger than a refrigerator in order to use them as "breeding machines". Sow stalls have been banned in the UK since 1999 as well as in other jurisdictions.
Meat and food products
Products in this category can be further divided according to two types of production processes: animal farming for commercial purposes and processing and manufacture of cooked food products.Animal farming for commercial purposes
Products from animal farming for commercial purposes include live chickens, eggs, live ducks, and live swine which are distributed to sales representatives throughout the country. The products are also distributed in surrounding local areas, to wholesalers and retailers, or to the company's processing plants or other processing plants in Thailand.The company has offices across the country, which act as centers for technical information to farmers on how to properly raise animals to obtain fast growth as well as assistance with marketing and distribution.
The company has a support program for the farming of swine and broilers. The company selects farmers who have their own farms and farming equipment. Selected farmers receive support in the areas of animal breeds, animal feed, medication, and farming knowledge from the company. The company then undertakes to purchase all yield which meets the CPF standards.
Processing and manufacture of cooked food products
Broilers, ducks, and swine from the company's farms are brought to processing plants to be butchered into meat products according to customer specifications. The meats are packaged, frozen, and distributed as chilled and frozen meat products to wholesalers, domestic retailers, and importers in various countries. The company adds value to processed meat products by flavoring and cooking through the process of boiling, steaming, frying, baking and grilling according to customer specifications. Export products are distributed through importers in various countries in the European Union, Asia, and Japan.Aquaculture
The aquaculture business includes mainly shrimp and some fish. The products can be classified into three main categories: animal feed, animal breeders, and meat and food products.Animal feed
The company produces and distributes aquatic feed, with the main product being shrimp feed. Aquatic feed is produced in the forms of concentrate, powder, and pellets and distributed through sales representatives who are in shrimp farming areas throughout the country. Agricultural products such as soybean meal, fish meal, and wheat flour are used in the production of aquatic feed.Aquatic breeders
Shrimp culture farms and hatcheries
Following the company's policy of supporting sustained growth and development in the shrimp industry, the company has developed shrimp fry to distribute to farmers, which will increase their opportunity to successfully farm shrimp. In 2004, the company entered into a joint venture with an American company with shrimp breeding expertise to develop shrimp fry that are suitable to for farming conditions in Thailand. The company's culture farms and hatcheries are in the shrimp farming areas in the eastern and southern regions of Thailand.Fish culture farms and hatcheries
The company has developed fish breeds to distribute to farmers, including tabtim fish fry, developed from tilapia fish. In 2006, the company also succeeded in developing the morakot fish breed type, which was developed from basa fish.Fish food products
Products in this category can be further divided according to two types of production process: shrimp and fish farming for commercial purposes and processing and manufacture of cooked food products.Farming for commercial purposes
"Traceability" has prompted the company to expand its shrimp farming business, resulting in fully integrated operations that produce for the company's processing plants as well as other processing plants in Thailand. In the management of the company's shrimp farms, research and development and technology are applied to find ways to prevent the outbreak of disease in shrimp and farming methods, which are friendly to the environment and do not cause residue build-up. The company promotes "probiotic farming" which avoids the use of drugs and chemicals.Processing and manufacture of cooked food products
Products derived from processing are one of the important products in the food products category of the aquaculture business. The main products are processed fresh shrimp and value-added processed shrimp, most of which are produced for export as chilled and frozen products and distributed through importers in various countries. The selling prices are also determined by agreement if the products have been manufactured according to customer specifications.Slavery allegations
In June 2014, after a several-month-long investigation, the British newspaper The Guardian claimed that Charoen Pokphand Foods purchases fishmeal, which it then feeds to its farmed prawns, from suppliers that own, operate, or buy from fishing boats manned with slaves. The Guardian claimed that after the slaves are bought "for as little as £250", the working conditions on those boats included forced labor with 20-hour work days, forced drug use, starvation, and executions.In July 2014, CP Foods hosted a three-day meeting to create a task force on the issue, with representatives from retailers, local government authorities, and non-governmental organisations such as Oxfam and the Environmental Justice Foundation. The progress made at this meeting is difficult to ascertain, as the original newspaper, The Guardian, has not posted any additional stories and the company website's sustainability page says "For the latest general update covering our approach and achievements" to read a page from December 2013, which promises "a further progress update in Q1 2014."
The president and CEO of Charoen Pokphand subsequently posted a "Statement to Shareholders" vowing to purchase only from certified processing plants, only acquire product from certified Thai fisheries, and that supply chain "...fishing vessels, fishmeal processing plants...must be certified by Thailand's Labor Standard or have been audited...by an external agency...."
In Australia, Woolworths stocks only CPF-Vietnam products and Metcash, wholesale supplier to Independent Grocers of Australia, has eliminated CPF SKUs from their inventory.
In January 2017, the United States District Court, Northern District of California ruled on multiple grounds in favour of CP Foods in relation to litigation brought against them and others, which claimed damages related to the alleged presence of human rights abuses in the supply chain for Thai shrimp. The Court's order - dismissal with prejudice - bars the plaintiffs from bringing such claims again.
Fishmeal supply chain audit
CP Foods only produces and sells farmed shrimp, and does not own or operate any fishing vessels. The company has been working to improve the traceability of the fishmeal element of its supply chain since 2012, and broadened this to encompass a full traceability system for its farmed shrimp supply chain in 2014. As part of that process, CP Foods has significantly reduced the number of suppliers that provide fishmeal for the production of shrimp feed. In October 2018, CPF announced that by 2020 it will have audited all of its suppliers for sustainability, including environmental, human rights, and labor issues. Of particular focus are CPF's fishmeal suppliers, which represent "CP Foods' only link to the ocean".CP Foods is currently undertaking a full independent, third-party audit of its shrimp feed supply chain, conducted by a leading international supply chain audit company. In addition, the by-product fishmeal in their shrimp feed is certified IFFO RS CoC - the highest international benchmark in the sustainable usage of fishmeal.