Great News! ASDA Won’t Use Thai Coconut Milk Following Monkey-Abuse Exposé
Great news! ASDA has become the first international retailer to agree not to source coconut milk from Thailand after learning about PETA Asia’s new undercover investigation into the use of monkeys in the country’s coconut industry. ASDA’s new own-brand coconut milk range will be sourced from the Philippines, instead.
PETA has asked ASDA to extend this policy to branded Thai coconut milk products and urges everyone to avoid buying them in the meantime due to the rampant abuse.
Monkey Abuse in the Thai Coconut Industry
PETA Asia’s third investigation implicates coconut pickers, brokers, farms, and monkey-training operations in nine Thai provinces, including top-producing ones.
The footage reveals one trainer dangling a screaming monkey by the neck and striking him with a tether. One monkey used for breeding was kept chained alone in the sun, without access to water, while other young monkeys languished in cramped cages.
Coconut pickers said that the monkeys sometimes incur broken bones from falling out of – or being yanked down from – trees, and a worker confirmed that most monkeys are kidnapped from their families in nature, even though the species exploited by the coconut trade are threatened or endangered.
Don’t Buy Coconut Products From Thailand
PETA Asia’s latest investigation found that the use of monkey labour is pervasive throughout the Thai coconut-farming industry. It links forced monkey labour to 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.
Therefore, PETA is calling on retailers to stop selling any Thai coconut milk products until monkeys are no longer used and abused for profit.
What You Can Do for Monkeys
ASDA has taken compassionate action to avoid cruelly obtained coconut milk, and we urge the Thai government to take meaningful steps towards ending the cruel practice of forcing captive monkeys to harvest coconuts.
Until the government acts, please avoid all Thai coconut milk and urge retailers such as Whole Foods to move their supply chains out of Thailand:
