Photo: The last chemical tanker with fish oil directly from Western Sahara arrived Olvea's factory in Fécamp, Normandy, in January 2017. @JCB.

“Concerning Western Sahara, our approach remains pragmatic: we act within the legal framework defined by the competent authorities. In the event of a change in governance or in this legal framework, Olvea will adapt to the new rules and stakeholders, while continuing its commitment to respecting the applicable standards”, the French company Olvea wrote in a letter to WSRW on 24 December 2024. 

The statement is a clear and final admission that Olvea has operations in occupied Western Sahara. 

The Olvea response follows the Western Sahara Resource Watch (WSRW) finding of smoking-gun evidence connecting the company Atlantic Tank in El Aaiún with Olvea: Atlantic Tank is registered in the database of the Dutch certification initiative GMP+ with an @olvea.com email address. The Atlantic Tank-Olvea connection is also found on a fisheries marketing website. Atlantic Tank furthermore is referred to as a “subsidiary” of Olvea on a staff representative's LinkedIn profile. 

Olvea does not mention its presence in Western Sahara in any of its public reporting and has always avoided responding to letters. Its website and 2024 social responsibility report (or download) refers to its presence in Morocco, Mauritania, Burkina Faso and Kenya, but fail to make any reference to relations with the territory of Western Sahara. 

WSRW has for long been tracing fish oil exports from Western Sahara, which remains under illegal, foreign occupation by Morocco. 

But after the Olvea's widely covered Key Bay incident in January 2017, taking place just two weeks after the EU's highest court had outruled imports from Western Sahara under the EU-Morocco trade framework, no such vessels have sailed from occupied Western Sahara to Olvea's port in France. At all. What was a very prominent decade-long trend suddenly came to a complete halt overnight. Instead, such chemical tankers now transport fish oil to Olvea's harbour in Normandy from Tan Tan or Agadir in neighbouring Morocco and from Nouadhibou in north Mauritania. 

Olvea has failed to answer questions whether the shipments it receives to France from the three ports since the 2016 court ruling contain fishoil originating from the territory of Western Sahara. WSRW expects that Atlantic Tank Terminal is supplying Olvea's facility in France. 

Goods from Western Sahara are not part of EU-Morocco's free trade agreement, as the territory is not part of Morocco. It is not clear if Olvea declares the imports from Western Sahara as from Western Sahara.

It appears now clear that Olvea has stopped transporting Western Sahara fishoil onboard chemical tankers loaded in the city of El Aaiúin. Instead, it is most likely using so-called flexitanks, which means they can transport the liquid in flexible bags inside standard shipping containers. Olvea's subsidiary Atlantic Tank has seemingly on numerous occasions, as late as in June 2025, been using such a transportation method for fish oil into the United States. 

WSRW and its French partner association APSO wrote to Olvea on 11 December 2024. The letter contained questions in relation to understanding of legal compliance, understanding of international law, adherence to standards they claim to follow, regarding compliance with EU court ruling on labelling of products from Western Sahara and about its trade practice. 

None of these questions were responded to. Instead, Olvea commented that “transparency is a fundamental pillar of our activities”. 

Even though the company failed to answer any of the questions, it is the first time that the company actually responds to a letter, after having received questions via mail 15 July 2014, by regular post 5 August 2014, by registered mail 18 November 2014, by email 9 April 2015, by email 2 October 2018, by registered mail on 5 October 2018, and by email 21 September 2020. 

In addition to being certified by GMP+, Olvea and its subsidiaries are, rather controversially, certified by Friend of the Sea and MarinTrust on matters such as sustainability. 

WSRW has written to these certificate initiatives to learn how they believe companies can comply with the standards while operating in occupied territory. MarinTrust has so far not responded, whereas Friend of the Sea have alerted they intend to do so. 

All certificates issued by these standards contain incorrect country of origin information. 

As such, the certification initiatives and its certifying bodies are ignoring a series of rulings from the EU Court of Justice, the latest rulings passed on 4 October 2024 and facilitate practices that are contrary to the court rulings. 

Previously operating under the name Winterisation, Olvea has been heavily involved in the trade for several years. Exports from Western Sahara to Olvea’s factory in Normandy significantly increased after Norway halted all imports of fish oil from the territory in 2010. The Norwegian import stop followed media revelations that the importing company had falsely declared fish oil from Western Sahara as Moroccan in origin - thereby avoiding substantial customs duties owed to the Norwegian authorities.

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