HelloFresh Says It Will Stop Using Coconut Milk From Thailand After Concerns About Coconut-Picking MonkeysIt's extremely common for trained monkeys to pick coconuts in Thailand, but animal rights group PETA raised the alarm about what it called "rampant monkey abuse."
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Whether or not coconuts picked by monkeys constitute animal abuse is back in the headlines.
HelloFresh, a meal kit company based in Berlin with a significant presence in the U.S.,told Axiosit would stop sourcing coconut milk from Thailand, the outlet reported Monday. Thenon-profitadvocacy groupPeople for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA), which is known for out-of-the-boxadvertisingincludingnaked ad campaignsadvocating for animal rights,has been campaigning to raise awareness about what ithas called"rampant monkey abuse."
PETA said in apress releaseit and its supporters have sent "nearly 100,000 e-mails," and that it campaigned for months to get HelloFresh to stop obtaining coconut milk in the country.
"We do not tolerate any form of animal abuse in our supply chain," HelloFresh told the outlet. "Out of an abundance of caution we will not be placing orders for coconut milk from Thailand," HelloFresh added.
Monkeys, particularly pigtailed macaques, have been picking coconuts in Thailand for some 400 years,NPR reported in 2015. Monkeys can pick coconuts more quickly than humans can, the outlet added.
PETA said that visited eight farms in 2019 wheremonkeyspick coconuts and "documented that these sensitive animals were abused and exploited," and itpublished these resultsin the summer of 2020.
PETA claimed in photos, videos, and text, that some monkeys are taken from the wild and from their families, forced to live in unpleasant conditions, and face maltreatment from farmers.
Still, about 80% of the market for coconut milk in the U.S. comes from Thailand, Axios reported, citing data it obtained from the Office of Agricultural Affairs at the Royal Thai Embassy.
"It would be difficult to find a coconut product made in Thailand that wasn't picked by a monkey," Arjen Schroevers, who runs a monkey training school in Thailand called The First Monkey School, told NPR in 2015.
SchroeverscriticizedPETA's conclusions in a 2020 poston the school's website, saying that PETA is a "militant vegan organization" that fights harder for media attention than animal rights and that some of their claims, such as that it's cruel to transport monkeys in cages, were not accurate.
"That is the safest and easiest way to transport a monkey," he wrote.
HelloFresh had over 3 million active customers in the U.S. as of the fourth quarter of 2022, per its most recentlyreportedfinancial results.
