Forced labour expose from the BBC World Service…
A new investigation by BBC Eye which airs on Panorama this evening, has found that several own-brand “Italian” tomato purees sold in UK supermarkets appear to contain tomatoes grown and picked in China using forced labour. Testing commissioned by the BBC World Service has found that a total of 17 products sold by major UK and German retailers, are likely to contain Chinese tomatoes.
These include products such as ASDA’s “Organic Tomato Purée”, Tesco’s “Italian Tomato Purée”, “Morrisons Tomato Puree” and “Essential Waitrose Tomato Purée”. Many have “Italian” in their name or in their description.
China grows about a third of the world’s tomatoes. Most Chinese tomatoes come from Xinjiang province, where their production is linked to forced labour by Uyghur and other largely Muslim minorities. The UN has reported forced labour, torture and abuse in Xinjiang. BBC Eye has spoken to 14 people who say they endured or witnessed forced labour in Xinjiang’s tomato fields over the past 16 years.
Mamutjan says he was sent to work in the tomato fields, where he was subjected to routine abuse. “The first time, we were told we had to pick 450kg of tomatoes. They [the prison authorities] said, ‘We’re warning you. If you can’t do it, we’ll punish you.’ The next day, I still hadn’t picked 450kg of tomatoes so they beat me up badly”, he said. Ahmed [not his real name] told the BBC: “I was sentenced to three years for teaching the Quran.”
“They told us the tomatoes would be exported overseas. If we did not meet the daily quota there were many methods of punishment. All kinds of ways to coerce us into obeying them like shocking us with electric prods.”
“Each person had to fill forty sacks of tomatoes every day. It was such hard labour. In the heat, people would fall over and pass out. I fainted two or three times, my nose bled. At times, I collapsed. There were even deaths. They don’t care.”
By piecing together shipping data from around the world, BBC Eye found that Italian company Antonio Petti, part of the Petti group, was a major recipient of tomatoes from Xinjiang. The Petti group produces tomato goods under its own name but also supplies others to supermarkets across Europe who sell them as their own branded products.
BBC Eye commissioned Source Certain, an origin verification firm based in Australia, to test 64 different tomato purees sold in the UK, Germany and the US, to assess whether the origin claims on the purees’ labels were accurate. Testing showed that 17 of the tomato purees appeared to contain Chinese tomatoes, 10 of which were made by Petti.
In 2021, one of the Petti group’s factories was raided by the Italian military police on suspicion of fraud. It was reported by the Italian press that Chinese and other foreign tomatoes were passed off as Italian. But a year after the raid, the case was settled out of court. Petti denied the allegations about Chinese tomatoes and the issue was dropped.
As part of the investigation into Petti, a Beeb undercover reporter posed as a businessman wanting to place a large order with the firm. He was invited to tour a company factory in Tuscany by Pasquale Petti, the General Manager of Italian Food, part of the Petti group. When asked if Petti sold Chinese tomatoes, Pasquale Petti, said: “Yes… In Europe, no-one wants Chinese tomatoes. But if for you it’s OK, we will find a way to produce the best price possible, even using Chinese tomatoes.”
The reporter’s undercover camera also captured a dozen blue barrels of tomato paste lined up inside the factory. A label visible on one of them read: “Xinjiang Guannong Tomato Products Co Ltd, prod date 2023-08-20.”
While the US has introduced strict legislation to ban all Xinjiang exports, Europe and the UK take a softer approach, allowing companies simply to self-regulate to ensure forced labour is not used in supply chains. This is now set to change in the EU, which has committed to stronger laws, says Chloe Cranston, from the NGO Anti-Slavery International. But she warns this will make it even more likely that the UK will become “a dumping ground” for forced labour products. “The UK Modern Slavery Act, sadly, is utterly not fit for purpose,” she says.
A spokesperson for the UK Department for Business and Trade:
“We are clear that no company in the UK should have forced labour in its supply chain… We keep our approach to how the UK can best tackle forced labour and environmental harms in supply chains under continual review and work internationally to enhance global labour standards.”
In its response to the investigation, the Petti group told BBC Eye it had not bought from Xinjiang Guannong since that company was sanctioned by the US for using forced labour in 2020, but did say that they had regularly purchased tomato paste from a Chinese company called Bazhou Red Fruit. This firm “did not engage in forced labour”, Petti told us. However, the investigation has found that Bazhou Red Fruit shares a phone number with Xinjiang Guannong and other evidence, including shipping data analysis, suggests that Bazhou Red Fruit is its shell company.
Petti added that: “In the future we will not import tomato products from China and will enhance our monitoring of suppliers to ensure compliance with human and workers’ rights.”
The supermarkets have all said they take these allegations very seriously and have carried out internal investigations which found no evidence of Chinese tomatoes. Tesco suspended supply and Rewe immediately withdrew the products. Waitrose, Morrisons, Edeka and Rewe said they had run their own tests, and that the results contradicted ours and did not show the presence of Chinese tomatoes in the products.
China denies it forces people to work in the tomato industry and says workers’ rights are protected by law. Xinjiang Guannong and Bazhou Red Fruit were contacted but did not respond.
BBC Eye Blood on the Shelves is now available to stream on the BBC World Service’s YouTube channel. In the UK, the investigation will also be shown on BBC Panorama tonight “What’s on Your Supermarket Shelves? The Dark Side of the Tomato Trade” (Monday) at 8pm on BBC One and on BBC iPlayer.
