Singapore supermarket to stop selling shark's fin
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Xinhua, January 6, 2012
Singapore's largest supermarket chain FairPrice will stop selling shark's fin products from April this year, local media reported on Friday.
The announcement on Thursday followed an outcry over a post on the Facebook page of one of its suppliers.
The supplier, Thern Da Seafood, used the words "screw the divers" in an apparent reference to diving enthusiasts who had been campaigning against the shark's fin trade, the Straits Times said. The post drew much criticism and went viral on the social networking site.
Many who commented called for a boycott of both the supplier and FairPrice. Comments also made their way onto FairPrice's Facebook page. Among them were calls for FairPrice to look again at its corporate social responsibility policy and to stop selling shark's fin.
FairPrice chief executive Seah Kian Peng said the supermarket chain would stop selling shark's fin products by the end of the first quarter of this year across its more than 230 outlets.
Seah said FairPrice had been looking into the sale of shark's fin products in the past few months as part of its commitment to being a socially responsible retailer. He also said it would be withdrawing all products from Thern Da Seafood.
"We do not condone such insensitive remarks. As a standing instruction, all our suppliers are required to clear their joint promotional materials and messages with us before implementation .. . the supplier had not complied with our standing instruction," he said.
A spokesman for Thern Da Seafood said the company had been unaware of the post, which was put up in November last year, until Wednesday.
He said the post was not representative of the company's position, and was made by a staff member tasked with managing the Facebook page.
"We have immediately, upon notice of the matter, removed the comments and reprimanded the staff member. We have also dismissed and terminated the employment contract of the staff member concerned," the spokesman said.
