HelloFresh Halting Thai Coconut Milk Sales Over Monkey Labor Allegations

This is definitely the right thing to do.

Monkey Business

After a PETA exposé revealed the gruesome conditions behind coconut milk mills in Thailand, the HelloFresh meal subscription is putting the kibosh on sourcing from that country.

As Axios reports, HelloFresh is now following suit behind Walmart, Target, and other major retailers in halting its Thai coconut milk sourcing after the animal rights group alleged that most, if not all, of the coconut milk operations in the Southeast Asian country use monkey labor.

The details from PETA's November exposé were brutal, and after extensive investigation and documentation, the animal rights group made a very compelling case for a number of coconut operations keeping the monkeys "chained, whipped, beaten, and forced to spend long hours picking coconuts."

Representatives from PETA told Axios that the meal kit company would no longer be buying coconut milk from Thailand, and in a statement, HelloFresh confirmed the decision.

"We do not tolerate any form of animal abuse in our supply chain," a HelloFresh representative told Axios. "Out of an abundance of caution we will not be placing orders for coconut milk from Thailand."

Activism Win

PETA has for years been urging retailers to stop buying coconut milk from Thailand, which as the report notes provides a majority of coconut milk sold worldwide. Beginning in 2019, the animal rights group has uncovered and published more and more evidence of monkey labor at Thai coconut operations, which is exactly as barbaric as it sounds.

As PETA pushes for retailers to stop buying products from Thailand entirely, the country's embassy in Washington, DC has declared that multiple agencies are working to end the practice.

As Axios notes, Thailand's government began issuing certificates to "monkey-free" farms last December — just a month after PETA's exposé about the practice made headlines.

"Both the Thai government and the industry are making sure that coconut milk exported from Thailand is not obtained from the use of monkey labor," the embassy said in a statement to the news site.

As horrific as the concept of animal labor is, this successful PETA campaign is proof positive that industrial activism and economic pressure can, in fact, work.

More on animal rights: Neuralink Employees Admit Company Has Killed 1,500 Animals So Far