Hawesta

• Risk across the industry, not a finding about this company: fishing fleets and processing plants have some of the worst documented forced labour, including trafficked crews held at sea for years.
• Makes part of its range in its own factories
• "Made in Germany" only means the last major stage happened there: under customs and consumer law, catching or farming the fish and seafood can be made elsewhere. It hasn't shown where those earlier stages happen, so where it's made counts towards On Track but not Good.
• Relies on fish and seafood from fishing boats and farms, where crews and farm workers, often migrants recruited into debt, have been held for months or years, beaten and denied pay, out of reach of factory audits. It hasn't shown any steps to trace its fish and seafood to the boat or farm or have the conditions of the people who catch or farm it checked, so it's graded Lacks transparency until it does.

Research notes Hawesta was taken over by Rügen Fisch in 2009, and Thai Union bought a majority of Rügen Fisch in 2015. In 2022 it announced the closure of Hawesta's Lübeck plant and the move of production to Rügen Fisch's own plant in Sassnitz, Germany. Herring is about 95% of volume; tuna arrives cleaned and pre-cooked from Thai Union in Bangkok and comes from the PNA fishery in the Pacific. Hawesta is recognised by MSC for its certified herring range, but no share of the whole range is given. It names no fishing vessels and reports no independent crew checks.