PETA said in a statement on Monday that the retailer had abandoned the product because an investigation conducted by the non-profit organization found that Theppadungporn Coconut Co. in Thailand ‘monkeys exploit and lie about it’. Goal connects Costco (COST), which dropped the milk in October.
PETA’s investigation found that monkeys are forced to pick coconuts and act for tourists, and that they are “tied up, chained to old tires or confined to cages that are barely larger than their bodies.” Multiple investigations by PETA Asia have found widespread use of monkey labor in Thailand’s coconut farming industry. Some companies have changed their practices, PETA said, but others hide the monkeys when auditors go to look at the animals.
Target (TGT) told CNN Business that it was ‘serious’ with the demands placed on Chaokoh, and since they were unable to address sufficient issues, we decided in November 2020 to remove their product from our range. ‘
Chaokoh, one of the world leaders in the manufacture of coconut milk and other coconut products, and Theppadungporn Coconut Co., did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. But the company told USA Today that they had checked coconut plantations with a third party and that they had not found the monkeys for harvesting coconuts.
According to PETA, Target joins 26,000 stores, including Wegmans, Food Lion and Stop & Shop, which have stopped selling the milk. It now focuses on Publix, Kroger (KR) and Albertsons, which continue to sell Chaokoh products.
Publix told CNN Business that it had reviewed the company’s third-party audits and that Thailand’s ambassador to the United States had confirmed that monkeys were “not used in the commercial harvest of coconuts”.
Kroger and Albertsons did not immediately return requests for comment.
–CNN’s Lauren Padgett contributed to this report.