Thai coconut milk maker says monkey labour accusation slashed sales

By Chayut Setboonsarng

 

A worker stands next to coconuts at a storage inside Chaokoh coconut products company plant in Nakhon Pathom, Thailand July 23, 2020. REUTERS/Chalinee Thirasupa

 

SAMUT SONGKRAM, Thailand (Reuters) - Thai coconut milk producer, Theppadungporn Coconut, suffered a sharp drop in sales after an animal rights groups accused the industry of using monkey labour, an executive said, adding it was auditing plantations to show animals were not used.

 

Several British retailers pulled Thai coconut products from their shelves earlier this month after a report by People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) alleged that coconuts in Thailand are picked by abused monkeys.

 

"We saw sales fall 20 to 30% (from last year) after the news," said Aphisak Theppadungporn, managing director of Theppadungporn Coconut Co. Ltd, one of Thailand's biggest producers and exporters which makes Chaokoh coconut milk.

 

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson's fiancée Carrie Symonds had welcomed pledges to stop selling coconut products that use monkey labour, and urged others to follow suit.

 

PETA has rejected the Thai government's claim that use of monkeys was almost "non-existent". Its report said the majority of Thai coconuts were harvested by monkeys caught from the wild.

 

Aphisak said evidence and documents were being prepared for customers in its main markets, and for PETA, to show monkeys were not involved in Theppadungporn Coconut products.

 

It started auditing plantations in January and of the more than 100 checked by a third party so far, none were found to have used monkeys, Aphisak said.

 

Coconuts are overwhelmingly collected by humans using poles, Aphisak and the Thai authorities have said.

 

Thailand last year produced more than 806,000 tonnes of coconut and exported coconut milk worth nearly $400 million, about 8% to Britain.

 

Wirat Saengjun, owner of a plantation in Samut Songkram close to Bangkok, said he was now selling about half the number of coconuts at half of the price of earlier in the year, forcing him to reduce his workforce.

 

"Coconut milk is not selling very well. It's probably from the news," he said, referring to the PETA report.

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2020-07-23

 

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Good news. Let us hope they close forever.

About time to stop import of all cosmetics and medicine from UK and put them on ban list for using monkeys (often with fatal consequences) in medicine and cosmetic testing.

1 hour ago, Malawi said:

Good news. Let us hope they close forever.

Who? UK? PETA?

3 hours ago, snoop1130 said:

It started auditing plantations in January and of the more than 100 checked by a third party so far, none were found to have used monkeys, Aphisak said.

Never believe numbers you haven't falsified yourself. 

 

Monkey lives matter!!! 

 

Pass it in. 

So they want to ban monkeys  from collecting coco nuts

Who will be doing the picking now, 8 year old kids who like to climb

the price is still the same

14 minutes ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

the price is still the same

You should count yourself lucky they haven't put it up 30% to compensate for the revenue loss they're "owed"!

People seem to worry more about monkeys climbing trees and dropping coconuts MORE than animal testing.

Animal testing is inhumane and it kills tens of millions of animals per year. Most of which have a horrible existence and suffer terribly.

  Cosmetics & pharmaceutical industry seem unaffected.

Monkeys run up tree and loosen coconuts, and are NOT killed. They are NOT treated horrifically.  and people make a fuss.

 

out of the above two examples, i'd rather see animal testing banned.

I was getting well paid at that job, now I have to go back to stealing from Tourist but they no come anymore.

19 hours ago, Bender Rodriguez said:

the price is still the same

And that's the whole point of it, isn't it. Not to bring you a cheaper, better service. It's solely to put more money into their pockets. As if those families didn't already have big enough mansions, and the latest Lambos to scream down Sukhumvit.

 

It also makes me think of this new "gig economy", where people no longer get a steady paycheck like in the good ol' days, but are paid piecemeal, like ride sharing and delivery drivers. Back in the States, the work is hard, the hours are long, and the pay is <deleted>. Then the big problem is, they get absolutely no benefits, no rights or protections. They don't even get toilets to use. They're told by stores and restaurants, "No, you can't go in there. You're not really an employee". Really?

 

Makes you feel like one of the monkeys, doesn't it? They figure, "We've taken their steady pay, taken their benefits, even taken their toilets, hmm...now only if there were some way we could stop paying them!" 

On 7/23/2020 at 10:50 PM, tomazbodner said:

About time to stop import of all cosmetics and medicine from UK and put them on ban list for using monkeys (often with fatal consequences) in medicine and cosmetic testing.

Imagine using drugs and cosmetics manufactured in China.   Profit over anything.  

 

The UK wants coconut picking monkeys banned
so they have more to import for lab experiments
i am really surprised the Thai gov and companies are not pointing out this hypocrisy more

Primates imported to UK for laboratory experiments ‘triple in a year to 6,752’

Despite overwhelming public opposition and a longstanding ban, fox hunting shows no signs of abating in the UK. ... The Hunting Act, which prohibited hunting foxes and wild mammals with dogs, was approved by the UK's parliament in 2003 with 362 MPs in favour and 156 against. The following year it became law.

But every January, the agency in charge of wildlife in the UK, Natural England, has been issuing a general licence that allows anyone in the UK to kill 16 species of birds including wood pigeons, crows, jays, rooks, jackdaws, magpies, Canada geese and parakeets

So that is all ok

People like monkeys-they are cute, and don’t talk back