Co-op ditches Thai coconut milk after damning exposé reveals monkeys being used for ‘slave labour’

Co-op has pledged to ditch Thai coconut milk following a PETA investigation into the abuse of monkeys in the country’s industry.

The retailer agreed to no longer source the product after a PETA Asia undercover investigation into the use of monkeys in the country’s coconut milk industry.

There, monkeys are forcibly used to collect coconuts, and, as footage from the investigation shows, are often subject to abuse.

Videos of monkey labour show the animals chained by the neck, as well as beaten and dangled by the neck.

Thai coconut milk

Instead of using Thai coconut milk, Co-op’s own brand coconut milk is now sourced from Sri Lanka.

Monkey labour is not used in the sourcing of coconuts in Sri Lanka. Co-op’s coconut milk sourced from Sri Lanka is now going into 2,400 UK stores, replacing the product which was linked to monkey labour.

Following its pledge to ditch Thai coconut milk from its own brand items, PETA has asked the retailer to extend this policy to include branded Thai coconut milk products.

The animal protection charity also urges consumers to ‘avoid buying any coconut products sourced from Thailand due to the rampant abuse involved in their production’.

PETA Investigation

According to PETA Asia, this (its third) investigation into the Thai coconut milk industry ‘implicates coconut pickers, brokers, farms, and monkey-training operations in nine provinces, including top-producing ones’.

Among the abuses captured on camera, one monkey used for breeding was ‘kept chained alone in the sun, without access to water’, while other young monkeys ‘languished in cramped cages’.

According to PETA, 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’.

PETA Senior Corporate Projects Manager Dr Carys Bennett said: “Co-op is living up to its cooperative namesake by taking this compassionate step to avoid cruelly obtained coconut milk, and we urge the Thai government to put an end to the exploitative practice of forcing captive monkeys to harvest coconut.

“PETA is calling on all retailers – including Whole Foods – to stop selling any Thai coconut milk products until monkeys are no longer used and abused for profit.”

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Featured photo © Abdul Razak via Adobe Stock