Chinese squid tied to labor abuses finds an easy route into Western markets

In recent years, a series of high-profile investigations implicated the Chinese fleets targeting squid in international waters in illegal fishing practices, environmental violations, and poor working conditions, including forced labor and deaths at sea. They’ve also identified abusive working conditions in Chinese squid-processing factories. The revelations received widespread public attention, including from elected officials in the U.S. and Europe. Yet a Mongabay analysis shows that Western markets have continued to import Chinese squid products in large quantities. The findings raise concerns about regulatory gaps, lack of transparency and consumer awareness, and the difficulty of adopting effective measures to prevent products linked to abuses from entering the market. “For us, the main problem is that the product, in this case from the Chinese fleet, enters the European market and is difficult to distinguish,” Edelmiro Ulloa, director of the Vigo Shipowners’ Cooperative in Spain, told Mongabay. According to Ulloa, the Spanish fleet, which is based in Vigo and fishes for squid primarily in international waters off Argentina, faces unfair competition. “On Chinese vessels, the working conditions are not only poor, but truly worrying,” he said. According to Ulloa, differences in production standards, including lower labor costs, result in Chinese squid prices being as much as 40% lower than Spanish squid prices. In 2025, China was the world’s leading exporter of frozen squid and cuttlefish products, which represent the vast majority of international trade in these species, with a total export value of $1.6 billion, according to data from ITC Trade Map, a…This article was originally published on Mongabay