World News | Highlights from the AP's Reporting on the Shrimp Industry in India
Get latest articles and stories on World at LatestLY. India is the top supplier of shrimp to the US, with Indian shrimp stocked in freezers at most of the nation's biggest grocery store and restaurant chains.
San Francisco, Mar 20 (AP) India is the top supplier of shrimp to the US, with Indian shrimp stocked in freezers at most of the nation's biggest grocery store and restaurant chains.
One reason for that is the low cost for consumers of shrimp from India. But that low cost comes at a price.
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The Associated Press travelled in February to the state of Andhra Pradesh in southeast India to document working conditions in the booming industry, after obtaining an advance copy of an investigation released Wednesday by the Chicago-based Corporate Accountability Lab, a human rights legal group, that found workers face “dangerous and abusive conditions."
Here are highlights from the AP's reporting and the CAL report:
THE US DEMAND FOR SHRIMP
Americans eat more than 5 pounds of shrimp per person per year, making it the leading seafood consumed in the country. Most American consumers would rather buy US-produced food. But with only 5% of shrimp sold in the country caught in the US, local shrimp can be harder to locate and considerably more costly.
In the 1970s, the US led the world in shrimp production. Then, shrimp was considered a delicacy. Diners were served expensive shrimp cocktails with less than a dozen shellfish. Over the next two decades, the use of inexpensive shrimp-farming technologies soared in Asia, and imports flooded the market.
India became America's leading shrimp supplier in part because media reports including an AP investigation exposed modern day slavery in the Thai seafood industry. AP's 2015 reporting led to the freedom of some 2,000 enslaved fishermen and prompted calls for bans of Thai shrimp, which had been dominating the market.
Today, Indian shrimp accounts for about 40% of the shrimp consumed in the US.
WORKING CONDITIONS IN INDIA
In Andhra Pradesh, AP journalists obtained access to shrimp hatcheries, growing ponds, peeling sheds and warehouses. AP journalists interviewed workers, supervisors and union organizers.
Residents said newly dug hatcheries and ponds had contaminated neighboring communities' water and soil, making it nearly impossible to grow crops, especially rice they depend on for food.
From the ponds, trucks hauled the shrimp to peeling sheds. In one shed, dozens of women, some barefoot, stood on narrow wooden benches enduring 10-hour shifts peeling shrimp covered in crushed ice. Barehanded or wearing filthy, torn gloves, the women twisted off the heads, pulled off the legs and pried off the shells, making it possible for American cooks to just tear open a bag and toss them in a skillet.
WHAT DO BUSINESSES SAY?
From India, the shrimp travels by the ton, frozen in shipping containers, to the US, more than 8,000 miles away.
It is nearly impossible to tell where a specific shrimp ends up, and whether a US-bound shipment has a connection to abusive labour practices. And Indian shrimp is regularly sold in major US stores such as Walmart, Target and Sam's Club and supermarkets like Kroger and Safeway.
POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS
Human rights advocates say cost-cutting from US supermarkets, restaurants and wholesalers squeeze producers to provide cheaper shrimp without addressing labor and environmental conditions.
CAL says Indian companies need to pay living wages and abide by labor, health, safety and environmental laws. In addition, the organization says US companies need to ensure that the price they pay for shrimp is enough for Indian exporters to treat workers equitably. And, they say, both the Indian and U.S. governments need to enforce existing laws. (AP)
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)