Only human labor used for harvesting coconut for Ambrosia coconut milk in Thailand

As you may have heard, PETA has been pushing retailers to stop selling coconut milk allegedly made with coconuts harvested by moneys, ever since it began investigating the alleged animal exploitation about a year ago. In reply to these allegations – Costco has recently pulled a major coconut brand from their shelves. 

We want to reassure our customers that the supplier of our Ambrosia coconut milk guarantees that all coconut processed in their production facilities was harvested by farmers that use special tools they call “long-knives”, i.e. knives that are attached to long poles. 

Our buyers have visited several coconut factories and growing areas in Thailand over the last 10-15 years and they haven’t seen any signs of forced monkey labor at commercial coconut plantations. However, they were told that macaque monkeys are kept as household pets and local people train them to help around the farm, including harvesting. It must be noted though, that Thai people are very peaceful and gentle and animal cruelty is deeply condemned by their culture. 

Nevertheless, officials from Thailand’s commerce ministry, animal welfare agency and representatives from the coconut industry have agreed to create measures that ensure the traceability of Thai coconut products. The $400 million industry can’t afford possible boycotts; in the future, all respectable packers will mark their packages with a code that can be used to track the products back to the monkey-free plantation where the raw material came from.