Image: Peta
PETA investigations have prompted the supermarket to source its own-brand coconut milk range from the Philippines instead.
UK supermarket ASDA has become the first international retailer to discontinue selling Thai coconut milk.
The decision follows a recent undercover investigation by vegan charity PETA into monkey abuse in the country’s coconut industry.
Going forward, ASDA’s new own-brand coconut milk will be sourced from the Philippines.
Monkeys abused in Thailand farms
PETA Asia has been exposing these cruel operations with many of its undercover investigations. Footage collected over the years reveals that monkeys continue to be abused and exploited on these plantations.
Recently, in its third investigation, PETA implicated coconut pickers, brokers, farms, and monkey-training operations in nine Thai provinces, including top-producing ones.
The clips showed one trainer dangling a screaming monkey by the neck and striking him with a tether. One monkey used for breeding was chained and kept stranded in the sun without access to water, while other young monkeys languished in cramped cages.
PETA Asia also revealed that the use of monkey labour is widespread throughout the Thai coconut farming industry.
These monkey-abused farms supply coconuts to almost all big food corporations, including Chaokoh and Ampol Food Processing (whose parent company is Theppadungporn Coconut Co.), Cocoburi, Tropicana Oil, Thai Pure Coconut Co., Ampawa, Edward & Sons Trading Co., and many other brands, in addition to Suree and Aroy-D.
Ban Thai coconut milk products
“ASDA has taken compassionate action to avoid cruelly obtained coconut milk, and we urge the Thai government to take meaningful steps towards ending the exploitative practice of forcing captive monkeys to harvest coconuts,” PETA Director of Vegan Corporate Projects Dawn Carr said in a statement.
“PETA is calling on retailers to stop selling any Thai coconut milk products until monkeys are no longer used and abused for profit.”
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