Thailand’s Merit Food Products Wins PETA Company of the Year

Thailand’s Merit Food Products Wins PETA Company of the Year

Merit Food Products Creates First Monkey Labour–Free Coconut Supply Chain

Chon Buri – In a historic move, Merit Food Products – maker of MeritO and Native Forest coconut milk and a supplier for Whole Foods’ brand 365 by Whole Foods Market – has become the first Thai coconut milk producer to eliminate monkey labour from its supply chain after working with PETA. For its efforts to help monkeys, PETA has named Merit its 2024 Company of the Year.

Multiple PETA investigations have revealed that endangered pig-tailed macaques – who are illegally kidnapped from the wild, kept chained up, and abusively trained – are exploited as coconut-picking machines in Thailand. When PETA’s investigators found monkey labour during a visit to Merit Food Products’ third-party supplier farms – even though it had already been certified as “monkey-free” by the Thai government – the company promptly cut ties with the suppliers and gave the investigators access to its local partner farms to verify that it was truly free from monkey labour. Merit Food Products also applied for a permit to import third-party coconuts from countries where monkey labour isn’t used and sent a letter to the Thai government asking for an official ban on monkey labour.

A chained monkey is trained to pick coconuts in Thailand. Credit: Raffaele Petralla

“Monkeys belong in the forest with their families, not chained and forced to pick coconuts under the threat of violence,” says PETA Senior Vice President Jason Baker. “PETA applauds Merit Food Products for working hard to get monkey labour out of its supply chain and urges other Thai coconut milk producers to follow its lead. Now it’s time for the government and others in the industry to step up and do their part.”

Earlier this year, Chef’s Choice Foods – PETA’s Company of the Year runner-up – became the first Thai brand to confirm to PETA that it will obtain coconuts only from countries where monkey labour isn’t used rather than sourcing them from farms in Thailand. PETA points out that other Thai coconut milk producers – including Thai Coco, Chaokoh, and Aroy-D – purchase coconuts from brokers or third parties who often falsely claim that their supply is monkey labour–free. The only way to end this practice is for the Thai government to ban the use of monkey labour.

PETA – whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to abuse in any way” – opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information, please visit PETAAsia.com or follow the group on X, Facebook, or Instagram.