RELATED: The One Thing Every Major Department Store Is Starting to Ban. On June 17, Kroger pledged to stop selling products from the coconut milk brand Chaokoh, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) told USA Today. The supermarket chain said it will drop all products from the brand once it finishes selling through its existing inventory. Per the news outlet, this is a major move because Kroger is the nation’s largest grocery chain, with regional supermarket chains in 35 states, including Fred Meyer, Harris Teeter, Ralphs, Mariano’s, Fry’s, Smith’s, King Soopers, and QFC. RELATED: Target Just Banned the Purchase of This One Thing at All Its Stores. According to USA Today, PETA has been pushing stores to stop selling coconut milk from Chaokoh since 2019. PETA says monkeys in Thailand are “kept chained, abusively trained, and forced to climb trees to pick coconuts,” and that Chaokoh is just one brand that sells coconut products made using forced monkey labor. “Every can of coconut milk purchased from Chaokoh represents the misery of a chained-up monkey,” PETA Executive Vice President Tracy Reiman said in a statement to USA Today. “Any grocery store still buying from this brand after PETA’s exposés of coconut cruelty risks losing compassionate shoppers, so Kroger made the right call.” RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. Theppadungporn Coconut Co. Ltd, the Thailand-based maker of Chaokoh coconut milk, told USA Today in Oct. 2o20 that it had audited its coconut plantations using a third party. Of the 64 farms out of 817 randomly selected for an audit, the maker says it “did not find the use of monkey for coconut harvesting.” “Following the recent news about the use of ‘monkey labour’ in Thailand’s coconut industry, Chaokoh, one of the world’s leaders in coconut milk production, reassures that we do not engage the use of monkey labour in our coconut plantations,” the company said in a statement to USA Today. RELATED: Chick-fil-A Is Banning Customers From Doing This Right Now.
