Navigating the Future of Seafood Sustainability: Thai Union’s Approach to Climate Risk, Traceability, and Responsible Sourcing

Thai Union Group’s Sustainability Report 2025 represents the company’s 13th sustainability report and covers the reporting period from 1 January to 31 December 2025. The report positions sustainability as part of the company’s long-term business strategy through its SeaChange® 2030 framework, rather than as a standalone corporate responsibility programme. The report states that it has been prepared with reference to GRI Standards 2021, IFRS S1 and IFRS S2 issued by the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB), and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The reporting approach reflects a broader transition in corporate sustainability disclosure. Seafood companies increasingly face overlapping expectations from investors, regulators, customers, and civil society regarding climate risks, biodiversity impacts, traceability, human rights, and supply chain resilience. Thai Union’s approach illustrates how a global food company is attempting to integrate these expectations into operational management, particularly in areas where environmental and social risks extend beyond direct operations.

The company’s sustainability strategy is built around 11 commitments under SeaChange® 2030, covering responsible sourcing, climate action, responsible production, human rights, safe work, circularity, and ecosystem protection. The report explains that these commitments are intended to provide structure and accountability across global operations and supply chains.

Governance architecture and accountability

A notable feature of Thai Union’s sustainability governance model is the positioning of sustainability oversight at senior management and board level. The company has established a Sustainable Development (SD) Committee chaired by the CEO, with the Chief Sustainability and Communications Officer serving as Co-Chair. The committee operates as a board-level mechanism responsible for advancing and monitoring sustainability strategy, reviewing progress against commitments, and addressing emerging sustainability issues.

This governance structure reflects an increasing market expectation that sustainability risks should be managed through existing corporate governance systems rather than through separate sustainability functions. The SD Committee’s mandate includes reviewing climate commitments, responsible sourcing commitments, packaging initiatives, and human rights-related policies, demonstrating an attempt to connect ESG objectives with business decision-making.

Risk governance is further supported through the Risk Management Committee (RMC), which oversees enterprise risk management using a framework aligned with COSO ERM principles. The company describes risk management as a structured process covering identification, assessment, mitigation, monitoring, and communication of risks. This approach is particularly relevant for a global seafood business exposed to climate volatility, resource constraints, geopolitical uncertainty, and supply chain disruption.

Materiality approach and risk prioritisation

Thai Union applies a double materiality approach, considering both the company’s impacts on society and the environment and the financial implications of sustainability-related risks and opportunities. The report explains that the 2025 materiality assessment reviewed existing material topics and considered new or emerging issues relevant to the company and stakeholders.

The methodology aligns with multiple global frameworks, including GRI Standards, the GRI Sector Standard for Agriculture, Aquaculture and Fishing, ESRS concepts under the EU Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), IFRS S1/S2, TCFD, SDGs, and sustainability assessment frameworks. This reflects how multinational companies are increasingly preparing for a more interconnected disclosure environment.

From a strategic perspective, the materiality process demonstrates recognition that sustainability risks in the seafood sector are systemic. Issues such as ocean ecosystem degradation, fisheries management, labour conditions on vessels, climate impacts on aquaculture, and consumer expectations cannot be managed solely within factory boundaries. Thai Union’s assessment considers its entire value chain, including suppliers, business relationships, and stakeholders.

Climate, supply chain, and social dimensions

Climate change represents one of the most significant strategic themes within SeaChange® 2030. Thai Union has established a target to reduce Scope 1, 2 and 3 greenhouse gas emissions by 42% by 2030 and achieve net zero emissions by 2050. The report highlights that Scope 3 emissions remain a major challenge due to the complexity and global nature of the seafood supply chain.

The company reports progress in reducing emissions compared with its baseline year and highlights initiatives such as lower-carbon shrimp programmes developed with external partners. These programmes demonstrate an industry trend where decarbonisation increasingly requires collaboration with suppliers, farmers, customers, and industry organisations rather than relying only on operational efficiency improvements.

Supply chain transparency is another central theme. Thai Union’s responsible seafood commitments include traceability, responsible wild-caught sourcing, aquaculture standards, and vessel monitoring. The company reports that more than 99% of sourced tuna is MSC certified or on a pathway toward certification, while vessel monitoring coverage reached 95%.

For the seafood sector, these practices illustrate the increasing importance of supply chain visibility. Future regulatory developments related to due diligence, biodiversity, and responsible sourcing may further increase expectations for companies to demonstrate not only policies but also measurable supply chain outcomes.

Employment

Employment-related issues are treated as a strategic sustainability topic through Thai Union’s “Safe, Decent, and Equitable Work” commitment. The company recognises that its workforce extends beyond factory employees to include workers throughout fishing vessels, farms, and supply chain partners.

The company’s approach focuses on human rights protection, worker welfare, inclusion, and responsible employment practices. This reflects the broader movement among global food companies toward stronger human rights due diligence, particularly in industries where labour risks can occur deep within supply chains.

Thai Union also identifies workforce diversity as a long-term objective, including a target that 50% of management positions within operations will be held by women by 2030. Such targets indicate an attempt to move beyond compliance-based disclosure toward measurable workforce transformation.

Health and safety

Occupational health and safety remains a material operational issue due to the nature of seafood processing, fishing activities, and manufacturing environments. Thai Union has established a 2030 objective to reduce lost-time injury frequency rate (LTIFR) to 0.15 and strive toward zero accidents and injuries across global operations.

The company also extends safety considerations beyond traditional workplace boundaries. Its commitment covers vessels and farms within its sourcing network, recognising that worker safety risks exist throughout the seafood value chain.

This reflects a wider ESG trend where occupational safety performance is increasingly evaluated together with supply chain labour management, worker engagement, and human rights practices.

Product or service responsibility

Product responsibility is closely connected to Thai Union’s role as a global food producer. The company identifies nutrition, food safety, responsible sourcing, and sustainable packaging as key areas within SeaChange® 2030.

The report includes a commitment that branded ambient products should meet nutritional guidelines and that new branded products should contribute positively to health and wellness outcomes. This reflects growing market attention on the relationship between food companies, consumer health, and responsible product innovation.

Packaging is another important area, with the company working toward sustainable packaging solutions. The challenge for food companies is balancing environmental objectives with product safety, shelf life, affordability, and consumer accessibility.

Philanthropy

Thai Union’s community activities demonstrate how corporate citizenship is integrated into its sustainability strategy. The company identifies community investment as one of its SeaChange® 2030 commitments, with a target of providing THB 250 million for community-based programmes by 2030.

The company has also highlighted emergency response activities and community support initiatives. These activities demonstrate the social dimension of corporate resilience, particularly for companies operating across multiple regions exposed to climate events, natural disasters, and economic pressures.

However, from an investor perspective, philanthropy increasingly needs to be evaluated alongside measurable social outcomes, rather than only financial contributions or participation numbers.

Metrics, targets, and data robustness

One of the strengths of the report is its use of measurable commitments and progress indicators. The company provides performance tracking across climate, responsible sourcing, packaging, manufacturing, workforce, biodiversity, and community investment.

The report also discloses reporting coverage across economic, social, occupational health and safety, and environmental dimensions, covering almost all group operations. This provides users with greater confidence regarding the scope of disclosed information.

Nevertheless, complex global supply chains remain a challenge for data quality. Scope 3 emissions, vessel conditions, supplier labour practices, and farm-level traceability require continuous improvement in data systems and verification processes.

Assurance, credibility, and comparability

The report includes an independent assurance section as part of its reporting structure. Independent assurance is increasingly important as sustainability information becomes more relevant to investment decisions and regulatory compliance.

Thai Union’s alignment with GRI, ISSB, and other international frameworks improves comparability with global peers. However, differences in sector methodologies, boundary definitions, and data maturity continue to create challenges when comparing sustainability performance across companies.

For investors and stakeholders, credibility increasingly depends not only on the existence of targets but also on the quality of governance, controls, evidence, and assurance supporting those targets.

Strategic implications for the sector

Thai Union’s sustainability approach highlights several strategic issues facing the global seafood industry. Climate change, ocean ecosystem degradation, resource availability, and labour risks are interconnected challenges requiring coordinated responses across supply chains.

The company’s experience suggests that future competitiveness in the seafood sector may depend increasingly on traceability capability, supplier engagement, climate resilience, and responsible production models. Companies that can demonstrate stronger visibility and management of value chain risks may be better positioned to respond to evolving customer and regulatory expectations.

At the same time, sustainability leadership requires continuous improvement. Achieving milestones does not eliminate underlying risks; instead, it creates expectations for stronger performance and deeper transparency.

ESG maturity and future positioning

Thai Union demonstrates characteristics of a relatively mature sustainability programme: a long-term strategy, board-level governance, measurable commitments, international reporting alignment, and extensive supply chain engagement.

The evolution from SeaChange® launched in 2016 toward SeaChange® 2030 illustrates a shift from establishing sustainability commitments toward embedding sustainability into operational systems.

Looking forward, the company’s ability to maintain credibility will depend on continued improvement in areas such as Scope 3 decarbonisation, biodiversity measurement, supplier-level data quality, and independent verification. The broader lesson for the seafood sector is that ESG maturity is increasingly measured not by commitments alone, but by the ability to translate commitments into measurable and verifiable outcomes.

Pacifica ESG View

Thai Union’s Sustainability Report 2025 demonstrates how a global seafood company is moving sustainability from a reporting exercise into a business management framework. Its strongest areas are supply chain transparency, responsible sourcing, climate strategy, and governance integration. The remaining challenge is scaling measurable impact across complex global value chains, particularly for Scope 3 emissions and supplier-level social risks.

Implications for the wider market

The report reflects broader ESG market trends: investors and regulators are increasingly assessing how companies manage interconnected environmental and social risks. For companies across food, agriculture, and consumer sectors, stronger governance, traceability systems, reliable data, and credible assurance will become increasingly important foundations for sustainability performance.

Download full report