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Wednesday July 6 2022

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    Mr Justice Linden: “If it contains excess fat, sugar or salt, that product is adverse to a child's health"

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    Mr Justice Linden: “If it contains excess fat, sugar or salt, that product is adverse to a child's health"

    Kellogg’s loses court case over sugary cereal

    Farmer Andy Pimbley examining ripening strawberries inside a polytunnel at Claremont Farm in Bebington on the Wirral © Colin McPherson/FT

    Labour shortfall leading to ‘catastrophic’ food waste

    The Longview Power Plant, a coal-fired plant, stands on August 21, 2018 in Maidsville, West Virginia. The plant’s single unit generates 700 net megawatts of electricity from run-of-mine coal and natural gas. Spencer Platt | Getty Images

    US Supreme Court limits EPA authority

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    “Understanding the emergence of CC398 in European livestock is vitally important for managing the risk it poses to public health”

    Super bug that arose in pigs can jump to humans

    Martin Lines, UK chair for the Nature Friendly Farming Network, says farmers will continue moving away from fertilisers and pesticides

    Fertilisers: going cold turkey in a time of crisis

    European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides, and European Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevicius

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    Mr Justice Linden: “If it contains excess fat, sugar or salt, that product is adverse to a child's health"

    Kellogg’s loses court case over sugary cereal

    Farmer Andy Pimbley examining ripening strawberries inside a polytunnel at Claremont Farm in Bebington on the Wirral © Colin McPherson/FT

    Labour shortfall leading to ‘catastrophic’ food waste

    The Longview Power Plant, a coal-fired plant, stands on August 21, 2018 in Maidsville, West Virginia. The plant’s single unit generates 700 net megawatts of electricity from run-of-mine coal and natural gas. Spencer Platt | Getty Images

    US Supreme Court limits EPA authority

    “Understanding the emergence of CC398 in European livestock is vitally important for managing the risk it poses to public health”

    Super bug that arose in pigs can jump to humans

    Martin Lines, UK chair for the Nature Friendly Farming Network, says farmers will continue moving away from fertilisers and pesticides

    Fertilisers: going cold turkey in a time of crisis

    European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides, and European Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevicius

    EU to halve use of pesticides, heal nature

    trade deals

    WTO strikes global trade deals after ‘roller coaster’ talks

    inflation

    Food inflation is swallowing Latin America’s dietary staples

    Protestors outside UK Parliament with a placard reading, "Keep the protocol, keep the peace."

    New EU legal action over post-Brexit deal changes

    Buyers at Risk Countries in Africa and Asia are among the most reliant on Ukraine grain

    US quietly urges Russia fertiliser deals

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    Mr Justice Linden: “If it contains excess fat, sugar or salt, that product is adverse to a child's health"

    Kellogg’s loses court case over sugary cereal

    Farmer Andy Pimbley examining ripening strawberries inside a polytunnel at Claremont Farm in Bebington on the Wirral © Colin McPherson/FT

    Labour shortfall leading to ‘catastrophic’ food waste

    The Longview Power Plant, a coal-fired plant, stands on August 21, 2018 in Maidsville, West Virginia. The plant’s single unit generates 700 net megawatts of electricity from run-of-mine coal and natural gas. Spencer Platt | Getty Images

    US Supreme Court limits EPA authority

    “If we lose territory we lose everything. It’s that simple.” Pic: Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador

    Ecuador’s Indigenous peoples: we are protecting our territories

    “Understanding the emergence of CC398 in European livestock is vitally important for managing the risk it poses to public health”

    Super bug that arose in pigs can jump to humans

    Martin Lines, UK chair for the Nature Friendly Farming Network, says farmers will continue moving away from fertilisers and pesticides

    Fertilisers: going cold turkey in a time of crisis

    European Commission Vice-President Frans Timmermans, European Commissioner for Health and Food Safety Stella Kyriakides, and European Commissioner for the Environment Virginijus Sinkevicius

    EU to halve use of pesticides, heal nature

    Executive director of Nourish Scotland, Pete Ritchie: “If the UK could just get over itself, alignment on sustainable food with the EU would be helpful”

    Scottish food bill: a dram to celebrate the end of the beginning

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Home Topics Governance

Ex-Bumble Bee CEO responds to jail sentence

Statement follows Department of Justice warning to the food-giant C-suite

by Lise Colyer
June 24, 2020
in Retail, Business
Reading Time: 3 mins read
0
CEO of Bumble Bee Foods jailed

Christopher Lischewski, former CEO of Bumble Bee Foods Photo: Bumble Bee Foods LLC

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The former CEO of Bumble Bee Foods, jailed last week in America for more than three years over canned tuna price fixing, has released a statement in response to sentencing.

Christopher Lischewski’s statement, which can be downloaded in full here, says that unforeseen circumstances led to tremendous cost inflation in the sector.

It says albacore was impacted by the tsunami that hit Japan in March 2011, resulting in the Fukushima nuclear disaster. This caused a loss of electricity throughout large areas of Japan destroyed much of the frozen tuna in Japan’s cold store facilities. Long line fishing vessels that traditionally fished for albacore tuna switched to other species of tuna (bigeye and yellowfin) to rebuild Japanese inventories.

Skipjack faced different supply challenges in 2011 and 2012 including a strong La Nina weather event in the Pacific Ocean, and increasing conservation measures that incorporated temporary fishery closures.

The statement continues, these events led to unanticipated tuna supply shortages resulting in record fish cost inflation. Albacore reached $3,200/ton, up almost 50% from the end of 2010, and skipjack reached $2,270/ton, up more than 130%. Albacore tuna makes up about 80% of the cost of a can of solid white tuna and skipjack tuna represents about 65% of the cost of a can of chunk light tuna.

Analysis by Dr. Joseph Levinsohn, an expert witness called by the defense and an economist at Yale University, said that based on a 15 year analysis of actual monthly price and cost data from 2002 – 2016, customers were under-charged during the purported conspiracy period, according to Mr Lischewski’s statement.

“The sentence will serve as a deterrent in the C-suite and the boardroom.”

One June 16th, the Department of Justice announced that Christopher Lischewski, was sentenced to serve 40 months in jail and pay a $100,000 criminal fine for his leadership role in a three-year antitrust conspiracy to fix canned tuna prices.

Mr Lischewski was charged on May 16, 2018 and in a four-week trial in late 2019, he was convicted on the single count of participating in a conspiracy to fix prices of canned tuna. In sentencing on June 16th, the court found that Lischewski was a leader or organiser of the conspiracy and that it affected over $600 million dollars of canned tuna sales.

Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, said, “The sentence imposed will serve as a significant deterrent in the C-suite and the boardroom.”

“Executives who cheat American consumers out of the benefits of competition will be brought to justice, particularly when their antitrust crimes affect the most basic necessity, food.  Today’s sentence reflects the serious harm that resulted from the multi-year conspiracy to fix prices of canned tuna.”

FBI San Francisco Division Special Agent in Charge, John F. Bennett, said, “This sentence is the result of our commitment to holding corporations and senior leadership accountable for their actions, whether they operate in the food supply industry or elsewhere.

“This brings us closer to our goal; allowing our citizens to be able to purchase food in an unbiased market within an efficient and fair economy, free of corporate greed.”

Bumble Bee pleaded guilty and was sentenced to pay a $25 million criminal fine.  In September, StarKist Co. was sentenced to pay a statutory maximum $100 million criminal fine.  In addition to Bumble Bee and StarKist, four executives, including Lischewski, were charged in the investigation.  The other three executives pleaded guilty and testified in Lischewski’s trial.

Further Reading

  • How overfishing can stop, for conservation and food security

  • Tyson Foods settlements in chicken price-fixing

  • US probes big beef’s link to inflation

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Lise Colyer is a founding editor of Quota. She seeks to improve food systems by communicating effectively across the business, policy and research sectors. Contact LiseColyer@quota.media.

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