Tuna Paradise program helping customers feed the hungry

Phuket, Thailand-based Tuna Paradise recently established a new program it has dubbed “PFP,” or People Feeding People, to help give back to the hungry in Southeast Asia.

A seafood processing company, Tuna Paradise processes and sells multiple seafood species including hamachi, marlin, swordfish, tuna, and mahi. Founded in 2004, the company started from a small rental facility and 20 part-time workers and has grown into a significant seafood processor with over 100 employees.

“We buy fish from India, from Indonesia, from around the world,” Tuna Paradise CEO Kalai Selvan told SeafoodSource during Seafood Expo Asia, which ran from 14 to 16 September, 2022, at the Suntec Singapore Convention and Exhibition Centre.

Selvan said the company is now hoping to use some of that success to give back to less-fortunate people in both the local community in Thailand and in other parts of Southeast Asia. To that end, the company set up PFP, he said.

“This is something that’s in our hearts, the people feeding people program,” Selvan said.

The new program is a platform that allows anyone who buys a box of the company’s fish to automatically feed a family or a child in need in Southeast Asia. Through partnerships with a number of nonprofits, the company will help fund meals for disadvantaged children.

“For example, in Myamar, there’s a lot of kids who have lost their parents, and then some other homes in Thailand there are basically kids who come from parents who have drug abuse problems and other things,” Selvan said. “So what we do is every time someone buys a bunch of fish from us, one meal goes to one of these families. It’s a direct connection between the consumer and the people.”

According to Selvan, the way the program works means Tuna Paradise is not taking the money and donating it – rather, it is creating a new platform that allows consumers directly use some of the money on the charity of their choice.

Using a QR code on a box of fish, the customer can directly impact a family in need, and then learn more information about the program that they just helped out.

One of the charities in question, The Father’s House, was started by a friend of Selvan who rescued kids from the war who lost their parents to the war in Myanmar. Another, called King’s Kids, helps children in Bangkok by feeding them and educating them in a small schoolroom.

Selvan said the company is hoping to get more companies on board with the program.

“These are the things we currently have, and we hope to add more homes like this,” Selvan said. “We want more producers to come on board and get this on their boxes so that it empowers the consumer.”

Photo courtesy of Tuna Paradise