In 2020, the New York Times published an overwhelming survey on the use of a Uighur labor by companies in the manufacture of surgical masks. Behind this program called “work rehabilitation” funded by the government was actually hiding an organized persecution of Uighurs, an ethnic minority from Xinjiang. The media also revealed that part of the product masks were purchased by foreign countries, including France.
Four years later, same place, same story (or almost). The BBC looked at the Xinjiang production of products purchased by several European companies. This time there is a question of tomatoes cultivated in China, which alone ensures approximately a third of world production. Only, these cultures are mainly present in the Xinjiang region, where “Their production is linked to the forced work of Uighurs and other predominantly Muslim minorities”can we read in the investigation written by journalists Mike Rudin and Sarah Buckley.
Thanks to data analysis, they discovered how Xinjiang tomatoes are transported to Europe by train via Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Georgia, from where they are then shipped to Italy. Thus, many tomato products whose label indicates as a “Italy” provenance would actually come from the forced work of the Uighurs.
Also, the name of a company appears several times as an important recipient. This is Petti, which is part of a group of large tomato processing companies in Italy. “The group would have received more than 36 million kilograms of tomatoes from the company Xinjiang Guannong and its subsidiaries between 2020 and 2023”can we read.
Petti’s “made in china” tomatoes
“Our investigation has tested sixty-four purees of different tomatoes sold in the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States, comparing them in the laboratory to samples from China and Italy”details the investigation. Among these purees are Italian brands and supermarket brands, such as Lidl*; Most of them are produced by Petti. To support transport data, the BBC has analyzed the origin of tomatoes used in several purees by a specialized Australian company, a certain source.
After having established what is called a “digital imprint” specific to a country of origin, the company then studied the trace elements absorbed by the tomatoes of a country (here China), which vary according to water and local rocks. “Our first objective was to establish what the underlying profile of trace elements for China would look like a probable profile for Italy. We found that they were very different ”explains the CEO of certain source, Cameron Scadding.
If the laboratory results demonstrate that many of these products actually contain Italian tomatoes, 17 of them (out of the 64 analyzed) would contain tomatoes of Chinese origin. And among them, almost half would be made by Petti.
Fourteen people agreed to testify to BBC journalists. All claim to have suffered or witnessed forced labor in the Xinjiang tomato fields in recent years. Many testimonies published previously already mentioned violence imposed on Uighurs in these so -called “rehabilitation” camps.
Mamutjan, a teacher imprisoned in 2015, confided: he claims to have been suspended from a ceiling then “Beaten because he had not respected the high quotas of tomatoes imposed on him ”. The Chinese state, on the other hand, denies the presence of forced workers in the tomato industry and affirms that their rights are protected by Chinese law. The UN, in a report published in 2022, evokes possible “Crimes against humanity” perpetuated against the ethnic minority.
We take the allegations described by the BBC very seriously.
Human rights violations, such as forced work, are intolerable for Lidl.
We have explicitly excluded the goods from China from our contracts with suppliers Antonio Petti Fu Pasquale Spa and Giaguaro Spa for years.
They both confirmed us verbally and in writing that, although they get their supplies in China, these goods do not enter into the composition of our products. We also received evidence of traceability from our two suppliers, confirming that the prizes tested by the BBC did not come from China. In addition, we carried out analyzes of these lots with accredited institutes, which confirmed the origin of the tomato puree declared by our suppliers. We have also had independent audits carried out at the two suppliers. The results of the audits contain nothing special. We therefore have no reason to think that the information transmitted by our suppliers was incorrect, nor that the prizes tested by the BBC contain tomato puree from China.
Of course, we will continue to follow this question closely.
The high standards that we impose on sustainability and social responsibility are also those that we expect from our suppliers. This applies to all our supply chains, in all countries, and includes compliance with our regulations and guidelines by our suppliers throughout our commercial relations, as well as honesty in our mutual relationships. If we are aware of specific cases of violation of these provisions, we will investigate and take the necessary measures.
Lidl applies the principles of diligence in matters of human rights and is unequivocally committed to respecting human rights and environmental obligations. Lidl constantly endeavors to minimize the negative impact of its supply chains and to effectively remedy the rights of rights, if necessary. Our code of conduct for business partners defines minimum social and environmental standards for cooperation, and we integrate them into negotiations with our business partners. We constantly and systematically examine the potential risks linked to human rights, society and the environment in our supply chains.
