In a letter to the US Department of Homeland Security’s Forced Labor Enforcement Task Force (FLETF), the Tarpon Springs, Florida-headquartered Southern Shrimp Alliance (SSA) has renewed its request that Rongcheng Sanyue Foodstuff Co., Ltd. be added to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act’s (UFLPA) Entity List.
In July of this year, the FLETF identified seafood as a high priority sector for enforcement under the UFLPA. That announcement followed the addition of Shandong Meijia Group Co., Ltd. (also known as Rizhao Meijia Group), a seafood processor based in Shandong province, to the UFLPA’s Entity List in June.
Like Shandong Meijia, Rongcheng Sanyue is a seafood processor based in Shandong province. And like Shandong Meijia, Rongcheng Sanyue exports Argentine red shrimp to global markets, including the United States.
The Southern Shrimp Alliance first formally requested the inclusion of both Shandong Meijia and Rongcheng Sanyue on the UFLPA’s Entity List in January of 2024. On December 30 it renewed the request regarding Rongcheng Sanyue because, it said: “Publicly available information indicates that the company has refused to allow US government officials access to its facilities in China but nevertheless has continued to export Argentine red shrimp to the US market.
Because Rongcheng Sanyue has barred Americangovernment officials from inspecting its production plant, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) added the company to Import Alert 99-32 (Detention Without Physical Examination of Human and Animal Food Products from Foreign Establishments Refusing FDA Inspection) in June 2023. Despite being prohibited from exporting shrimp to the US market, the West Coast Division of the FDA reported refusing an entry line of shrimp shipped by Rongcheng Sanyue in September of 2024. Bills of lading data indicate that the goods description for this shipment was “frozen Argentine red shrimp HLSO, easy peel.” Moreover, bills of lading data indicate that Rongcheng Sanyue has exported at least another three containers of Argentine red shrimp to United States ports since the FDA refusal.
Rongcheng Sanyue is one of 42 Chinese companies on the FDA’s Import Alert 99-32 for refusing to allow inspection of their facilities. No other country in the world has more than four companies included on that list, according to the Southern Shrimp Alliance, which noted that Mexico has four companies listed and India has three. Of the Chinese companies listed, at least ten appear to be seafood processors or exporters. And of these companies, four, including Rongcheng Sanyue, are located in Shandong Province.
“Rongcheng Sanyue has prohibited our government from inspecting its processing plant but still sells seafood into the US market,” said John Williams, executive director of the Southern Shrimp Alliance. “If anyone in our industry told the FDA to take a hike, that company would be immediately shut down. But for Rongcheng Sanyue, blowing off the FDA has allowed the company to conceal any benefit obtained from the Chinese government’s oppression of the Uyghur minority without consequence. That’s not right and we ask that the FLETF take immediate action to include Rongcheng Sanyue on the UFLPA’s Entity List.”
