No shark's fin products at FairPrice by end March

Sumita Sreedharan Today Online 6 Jan 12;

SINGAPORE - Shark's fin products will no longer be sold at over 100 FairPrice outlets by the end of March this year. The retailer will cease selling shark's fin products at all its retail outlets, which include FairPrice supermarkets, FairPrice Finest, FairPrice Xtra hypermarkets, Cheers and FairPrice Xpress petrol stations, and FairPrice Online.

NTUC FairPrice CEO Seah Kian Peng told Today that it has been looking into the area of shark's fin products for the last few months, "in our commitment to be a socially responsible retailer."

"FairPrice has always focused our efforts on social sustainability by reaching out to the less privileged in the community, helping them to have access to daily needs but, at the same time, we recognise that there are other areas of sustainability such as environmental sustainability that need to be addressed," he said.

FairPrice will no longer be extending new commitments for shark's fin products but will honour current commitments to its suppliers. "In other words, this will be the last Chinese New Year in which customers can buy shark's fin products at all our stores," said Mr Seah.

This announcement comes after an incident in November last year when an employee of Thern Da Seafood, a supplier of shark's fin products to FairPrice, made disparaging remarks about divers who were against shark finning on his Facebook page. This sparked an online protest, with many raising their concerns on the wall of FairPrice's Facebook page.

FairPrice said on its Facebook page yesterday that all its suppliers are required to clear joint promotional materials and messages before implementation. In this incident, the supplier had not complied with the standing instructions.

Stating that it takes the matter very seriously, FairPrice will be withdrawing all products from Thern Da Seafood across all their stores, it said.

Cold Storage ceased the sale of shark's fin products in October last year. When contacted, a spokesperson for Sheng Siong, which operates 25 stores in Singapore, said that they do not have concrete plans to do so at the moment.

Outrage over posting on supplier's webpage
FairPrice to stop selling shark's fin products after...
Ng Kai Ling Straits Times 6 Jan 12;

SINGAPORE'S largest supermarket chain, FairPrice, yesterday announced that it will stop selling shark's fin products from April this year.

The move follows an outcry over a post on the Facebook page of one of its suppliers.

The comment 'Screw the divers' - an apparent reference to diving enthusiasts campaigning against the shark's fin trade - appeared on the Facebook page of Thern Da Seafood. It was announcing the launch of a new shark's fin product at FairPrice outlets.

The post drew much criticism and went viral on the social networking site and also microblog Twitter. Many who commented called for a boycott of both the supplier and FairPrice.

Comments also made their way onto FairPrice's Facebook page. Among them were calls for FairPrice to look again at its corporate social responsibility policy and to stop selling shark's fin.

In a statement yesterday, FairPrice chief executive Seah Kian Peng said it would stop selling shark's fin products by the end of the first quarter of this year.

This will be in effect across FairPrice's more than 230 retail outlets, which include FairPrice Finest stores, FairPrice Xpress petrol stations and also its online store.

Mr Seah said FairPrice had been looking into the sale of shark's fin products in the past few months as part of its commitment to being a socially responsible retailer. He also said it would be withdrawing all products from Thern Da Seafood.

'We do not condone such insensitive remarks. As a standing instruction, all our suppliers are required to clear their joint promotional materials and messages with us before implementation... the supplier had not complied with our standing instruction,' he said.

A spokesman for Thern Da Seafood said the company had been unaware of the post, which was put up in November last year, until Wednesday.

He said the post was not representative of the company's position, and was made by a staff member tasked with managing the Facebook page, which was deactivated on Wednesday night.

The spokesman said: 'We have immediately, upon notice of the matter, removed the comments and reprimanded the staff member. We have also dismissed and terminated the employment contract of the staff member concerned.'

In recent years, the consumption of shark's fin - considered a delicacy in traditional Chinese culture - has been a controversial issue.

According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List of Threatened Species, six species of sharks are considered critically endangered.

Conservationists have also pointed out that shark's fin, on its own, has no taste nor nutritional value.

In Singapore, imports of shark's fin have nearly doubled since 2003 to about 2,500 tonnes in 2010, up from 1,300 tonnes about eight years ago.

The growing calls for sharks not to be eaten have prompted many companies, like upmarket Hong Kong hotel chain the Peninsula Hotel Group, to stop selling shark's fin from Jan 1 this year.

Last September, local supermarket chain Cold Storage was the first to pull all shark's fin products from the shelves of all its 42 outlets.

It is unclear how much shark's fin is sold yearly by FairPrice, but one supplier said demand typically picks up during the lead-up to Chinese New Year.

Mrs Doreen Goh, who runs Yeow Seng Shark's Fin, said yesterday that her company has supplied between 3,000kg and 4,000kg of frozen shark's fin and 2,000 cartons of canned shark's fin to FairPrice for sale during this Chinese New Year.

'We are one of FairPrice's biggest suppliers of shark's fin, and we have not heard anything from them,' said Mrs Goh, who was surprised to hear the news.

However, the news of FairPrice's withdrawal of shark's fin products was welcomed by netizens.

Within five hours of the announcement being made on the That's My FairPrice Facebook page, it drew close to 400 'likes' and more than 100 comments.

Ms Jennifer Lee, founder of Project: Fin, which aims to reduce the consumption of shark's fin through the education of both consumers and businesses, noted that FairPrice's move could have some impact on other businesses.

'This may get others that still sell shark's fin, such as restaurants, to rethink their policy,' she said.

Going forward, Ms Lee and others like biologist Xu Qiaoling hope that supermarkets will in future stock only seafood from sustainable sources - in other words, from areas where the ecosystem is not threatened by overfishing.

Said Ms Xu: 'FairPrice's recent move to stock locally farmed fish was a good start, but I hope they will not stop there.'

NTUC FairPrice withdraws all Thern Da products
The New Paper AsiaOne 7 Jan 12;

THIS will be the last Chinese New Year where you can buy shark’s fin products from FairPrice outlets.

Singapore’s largest supermarket chain announced yesterday that it will stop selling such products by the end of March.

In another surprise move, FairPrice is also withdrawing from its shelves all products from one seafood supplier – Thern Da Seafood – after one of its employees made insensitive comments about divers who were against shark finning.

A Mr Chris Lee had announced in a recent Facebook post that a product supplied by his company – containing shark’s fin – would be launched this month at FairPrice outlets during Chinese New Year.

Mr Lee, who is listed as Thern Da’s sales manager, said: “S***w the divers!”

He then went on to mock the divers for being unable to stop his company from supplying the product.

Mr Lee even directed an expletive at them, saying: “I’m not the one who slashed the sharks.”

His comments, which were made last November, angered netizens.

On Wednesday, they complained about the matter on FairPrice’s Facebook page. And yesterday, FairPrice acted.
Withdraw

The supermarket announced it was withdrawing all Thern Da products from its stores.

Its chief executive officer, Mr Seah Kian Peng, told The New Paper in an e-mail reply: “We know many customers are upset by the insensitive post.

“We do not condone such insensitive remarks.”

Mr Seah explained that as a standing instruction, all FairPrice’s suppliers are required to clear their joint promotional materials and messages with the retailer before implementation.

Thern Da had not done so in this instance.

Said Mr Seah: “We take this matter very seriously.”

He also announced that FairPrice will cease the sale of shark’s fin products by the end of March.

This will apply across all its retail formats, including its supermarkets, hypermarkets, Cheers outlets and its online platform.

The decision was made after a review over the last few months. Said Mr Seah: “We recognise that there are areas of sustainability, such as environmental sustainability, that need to be addressed. “As such, we have been continually assessing various policies in our commitment to be a socially responsible retailer.

“We will no longer be extending new commitments for shark’s fin products.” Netizens applauded FairPrice’s decision.

One said: “I’m so happy to see NTUC make such a courageous stand.

“Thanks for making sure future generations will have healthy fish stocks in the ocean.”

But another netizen said: “Well done, FairPrice, though removal of shark’s fin products before CNY will send an even stronger message in your commitment to sustainability.

“Such an announcement before CNY might result in an abnormal spike in demand, which will be detrimental to your cause.”

It was reported last October that Cold Storage was the first supermarket chain in Singapore to stop selling shark’s fin and other shark products.

Thern Da, a private company registered in 2008, could not be reached for comment.

Its Facebook account, as well as Mr Lee’s, appear to have been deleted.