What on earth is sushi terrorism?

Sascha: [00:00:02] I'm Sascha Kelly and welcome to The Dive, the podcast that asks whoever said that business news needs to be all business. Today we're going to try something a little bit different. You're used to hearing me introduce one story that we talk about for about 15 minutes or so, but today we wanted to tackle three and I'm just going to level with you. There's no special reason for it. It's just that a few stories have popped up that we really want to talk about, and we just didn't think there was quite enough to get you through 15 minutes. So we thought, why not put them all together? So here we are, 15 minutes, three stories, 5 minutes each. To do this, I'm joined by my colleague here at Equity Mates. It's Darcy Cordell. Darcy, are you up for this challenge today

Darcy: [00:00:47] I'm absolutely up for it, Sascha. And you're lucky you've got me today rather than Alec, because we know he would waffle on for more than 15 minutes. 

Sascha: [00:00:56] You said it, not me. But you're right. There would be a fair bit on the cutting room floor. On the virtual cutting room floor? Look, I'm going to give you a bit of a tease for our three stories today. And then you're going to choose which one we're going to dive into first, right? Here they go. Number one, How has Monkey Labour led to a change in Hellofresh as policies? Two, Multiple people have been arrested for sushi terrorism in Japan, which is on the rise, and 390 million people in Ethiopia who currently don't use the internet might suddenly be getting access. And what does that mean? Darcy What should we start off with? 

Darcy: [00:01:37] Let's start with a story about Hello fresh in their operations in Thailand.

Audio Clip: [00:01:41] This is cool App, one of countless monkeys trapped in Thailand's coconut industry. GEETA Asia investigators have uncovered shocking abuse of monkeys on farms in Thailand that produce coconuts for export around the world to be used to make coconut milk, yoghurt, oil and other products. 

Sascha: [00:01:59] Yes, this is all about a crackdown on monkey labour. Thailand is the home of the coconut. In 2021, it exported more than 230,000 metric tons of coconut milk, which was worth about 12,800 million baht or 375 million U.S. dollars. It accounts for 80% of the market share in the U.S. But the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals, or PETA, has accused Thai growers of the use of forced monkey labour in the coconut industry there. And as a result, Walmart, Costco and other large American retailers have stopped the sale of Chaco coconut milk, which is a Thai brand. But the meal kit company Hellofresh has pledged to stop using coconut milk from Thailand altogether. They've gone that step further. Darcy, what is going on with Thailand's coconut industry? Should I be buying their produce?

Darcy: [00:02:58] I guess that's a matter of your personal thoughts. But I'll tell you what's happening in Thailand first. And this story kicked off last November when PETA published a report claiming that monkeys were being abused at dozens of coconut retrieval operations around Thailand. This was PETA's third investigation into the Thai coconut industry, and it found the use of monkeys is rampant throughout the country.

Sascha: [00:03:21] I've got to ask, how exactly are monkeys being used? You get all sorts of mental images, but they're clearly climbing the trees. Right. And collecting the coconuts.

Darcy: [00:03:30] Yeah, that's right. So coconut trees average between 60 to 80 feet or about 20 metres high. And Peter claims that monkeys are being forced to climb these trees 4 hours a day and pick coconuts. The then use to make products like coconut milk, flour and oil. And the thing is, male monkeys are able to pick up to 1000 coconuts a day, whereas humans can only pick about 80. Peter says these monkeys have been kidnapped, chained and whipped, and they've found and documented some of this evidence. There are estimates that Thai farmers have a total of about 4 to 5000 monkeys in captivity helping them pick coconuts. 

Sascha: [00:04:08] And after finding out this information, Paytas supporters sent nearly 100,000 emails pushing companies like Hello Fresh to abandon Thai produce. 

Darcy: [00:04:17] Yeah, that's right. And it has worked. Around the world, companies are ditching Thai coconut milk. More than 25,000 retailers in the US and Europe have stopped selling Thai coconut brands. And this week, German company Hellofresh made headlines for ditching Thai producers altogether. We're yet to see any Australian retailers make announcements, but it's probably a matter of time before we see more brands ditch Thai coconut milk. 

Sascha: [00:04:41] Earlier we talked about the fact that Thailand supplies 80% of American coconut milk. I'm sure it's a similarly large percentage around the world. Are we going to see coconut milk shortages? Is that the next shortage that is going to be gripping our supermarkets? 

Darcy: [00:04:58] Some good news here. At this stage, it doesn't look like that. There hasn't been any material change in prices for coconut milk or other coconut related products, and retailers are pretty confident that they can source coconuts from other countries that don't use monkey labour. PETA is encouraging consumers to buy products made from coconuts grown in the Dominican Republic, India, Indonesia, the Philippines and Vietnam, all of which don't use monkeys to pick the coconuts.

Sascha: [00:05:26] All right. And what has the response from Thailand been? 

Darcy: [00:05:29] The Royal Thai Embassy has announced a new monkey free Plus program, which was announced back in December, basically trying to rid the country and the country's farmers of using monkeys to help pick coconuts. Having said that, though, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the kingdom of Thailand, they still have a video on their government Facebook page from 2020 with the chained monkey picking coconuts.

Sascha: [00:05:52] Wow. Okay, one to watch. Well, let's get onto our second story, which is sushi terrorism in Japan.

Audio Clip: [00:06:00] There's growing outrage in Japan over so-called sushi terrorism pranks at conveyor belt restaurants. The latest involved three people who drank soy sauce directly from a communal bottle, amongst other things, sparking hygiene concerns. They have been arrested, but that's not the only. 

Darcy: [00:06:16] This story has been a few months in the making. There's been a rise in customers at sushi restaurants, basically sabotaging other people's food with some pretty disgusting and unhygienic acts. The first case was earlier this year where a teenager licked the rim of a teacup before placing it back on a shelf and then wiped the saliva on a plate of passing sushi. 

Sascha: [00:06:39] And so it's just been escalating from here.

Darcy: [00:06:42] Yeah. So since then, we've seen people drinking straight from the bottle of communal soy sauce and others just putting the full bottle in their mouth.

Sascha: [00:06:50] This is so bizarre. And it's not a good idea to make broad generalisations, but the Japanese are known as very hygienic people. I cannot imagine this has helped their confidence in eating out. 

Darcy: [00:07:03] Yeah, and we haven't come up with the term sushi terrorism. That is how the Japanese media are reporting it. It's definitely shock the Japanese public and made people understandably nervous about eating out. Sushi chain restaurants have had to take some pretty drastic measures to attract customers back into their restaurants. This week, Choshu Maru Restaurant in Tokyo said it was stopping its conveyor belts. Sir Shiro, the market leader, is only delivering sushi via an express line to customers who order via touchscreen devices. And current Sushi said it would soon start using cameras equipped with artificial intelligence to monitor customers tables. There's obviously some complaints about that that it's effectively putting their clients under surveillance. 

Sascha: [00:07:47] It's not stopping there. We've actually seen people arrested for sushi terrorism.

Darcy: [00:07:52] We have Japanese police have made several arrests under the charge of unhygienic and harassing behaviour. A 21 year old who is alleged to have drank from the communal soy sauce bottle in the city of Nagoya last month is one of those arrested and two other customers, a 19 year old and a 15 year old, were also arrested for allegedly helping share a ten second clip that showed the 19 year old placing a soy sauce bottle in his mouth. 

Sascha: [00:08:16] You said something really interesting there. They shared a ten second clip it reminds me of when I spoke at Challenge or Planking. Do you remember when planking went? Of course. Viral about seven years ago. Is that what this is coming from? Is it a viral trend? [

Darcy: [00:08:31] Without knowing for sure. It's what it seems like, doesn't it? There's quite a few of these sushi terrorism cases. The very harsh word that have been filmed and shared online. And all the arrests so far are about 21 years old and under. So it does feel like a bit of a trend or craze, but it's certainly one that I wouldn't feel good about if I was eating out in Japan. 

Sascha: [00:08:52] No, not at all. So two down, Darcy, one to go. Well, let's turn to our third story. 90 million people in Ethiopia don't use the Internet. And this might all be about to change. We're going to talk about what that means in just a minute. Welcome back to The Dive, the podcast that says businesses doesn't need to be all business. Thank you so much for your feedback and your five star reviews. We really appreciate it. Please jump in your podcast player, write some notes on Spotify, Give us a five star review on Apple. Every single bit helps. We've got one more story to go. And Darcy, we're heading to Ethiopia. Africa's second most populous nation is going online. We know the power of getting access to the Internet. We've seen the emergence of a Southeast Asian middle class over the past decade, which has all come about from providing cheaper smartphones and access to the Internet. So why is this a story now with Ethiopia?

Darcy: [00:09:56] Last year, Ethiopia's government ended the state owned monopoly on providing Internet and they opened it up to private companies. Before this change, Ethiopia's Internet was plagued by high costs and some low quality. In a country of 120 million people, less than 30 million were on the Internet. So just 25% of the population.

Sascha: [00:10:16] And also, Darcy, the government would often turn off the Internet during moments of political tension. 

Darcy: [00:10:23] Yeah, that's right. The conflict ridden Tigray region in the north of Ethiopia is living through one of the world's longest Internet blackouts. 

Audio Clip: [00:10:30] Residents of northern Ethiopia report that Internet, mobile phone and landline communications have been cut since government troops moved into the ground. 

Darcy: [00:10:38] And across the country, Internet shutdowns cost the economy $8.3 million a day, according to the Centre for Advancement of Rights and Democracy. 

Sascha: [00:10:46] All right. So 25% of their population is connected to the Internet. Help me understand that percentage in context.

Darcy: [00:10:54] Globally, 97% of people in the UK are connected to the Internet. 91% of people here in Australia and in the US, 76% in Bangladesh. Down to 60% in India and 43% in Iraq. But worldwide, 63% of people are internet users.

Sascha: [00:11:14] So 25%. Does that put Ethiopia as one of the lowest in the world? 

Darcy: [00:11:19] It's actually not even close from what we could find. There are five countries in the world with less than 5% of their population online. And I'm sure it doesn't surprise you, Sascha, that all five are in Africa. Burundi, Central African Republic, Guinea-Bissau, Eritrea and Somalia are the bottom five.

Sascha: [00:11:38] The story here is that's worth paying attention to because if these numbers start moving and more of the African population come online, this is going to lead to investment in infrastructure and things are going to start moving really quickly for sure. 

Darcy: [00:11:54] And Ethiopia is a case study of this. Since the government lifted the monopoly last year, Kenyan telecoms giant Safaricom launched services in Ethiopia after it paid $850 million to operate in the country. So their investors plan to invest another $8 billion in Internet infrastructure in Ethiopia over the next decade, and that marks the largest single foreign direct investment in Ethiopia's history. And competition has also been revolutionary. Rest of world reported that five years ago, unlimited mobile Internet in Ethiopia would cost around 100 USD a month. Since Safaricom entered the market, that is now just $19 a month. 

Sascha: [00:12:35] So that leads me to wonder, is this just an Ethiopian story? If we are also hearing those low percentage numbers in other parts of the continent? 

Darcy: [00:12:45] Yeah. More of Africa is coming online. It's definitely still behind the rest of the world, but the investment is flowing. Google and Facebook are building giant undersea cables that will travel around the continent of Africa to connect consumers with faster and more stable Internet across the continent. About 500 million people online right now. But estimates are that another 300 million people will join them by 2025, just two years away. So the impacts of so many people getting online are going to be pretty profound. And we can bet that this won't be the last time we talk about this story. Sascha. 

Sascha: [00:13:18] Oh, what a way to finish or we've wrapped up our third story, and those are real. Watch this space to it. We're going to leave it there for today. But please let us know what you think of the format of the stories. What piqued your interest? What you're doing right now and how much you love The Dive. Get in touch with us at thedive@equitymates.com. All right there in your podcast player, you can leave us a message. But always remember the best thing that you can do for us is send this on to a friend who you think will enjoy it. We love it when we reach new. Is a huge thanks to you, Darcy, for joining me today. 

Darcy: [00:13:54] Thanks, Sascha. 

Sascha: [00:13:55] Loved it.