A sustainable future for shrimp production in ... - SEAT Global

A sustainable future for shrimp
production in Bangladesh?
An ethical perspective on the conventional and organic
supply chain of shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh.
Loni Hensler
SEAT - Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade

A sustainable future for shrimp production in Bangladesh?
In recent years aquaculture has become more and more important for Asia, particularly in Bangladesh. It represents
the second largest export industry for Bangladesh after garments with 97% of the shrimp produced being
exported 1 , contributing about 4% to national GDP 2 and employing approximately 1.2 million people for production,
processing and marketing activities. Including their families, this sees approximately 4.8 million Bangladeshi
people directly dependent on this sector for their livelihood 3 . However, while the Bangladeshi shrimp industry
grows, it has also drawn some controversy. Some groups argue in favour of the industry, asserting that it produces
nutritious food, releases the pressure on our overfished oceans and meat production, and contributes to
the income of poor farmers who have no other possibilities for improving their situation. Others warn against
buying these shrimps and accuse the industry of a variety of abuses, ranging from environmental degradation, to
endangering local food security, to social considerations of low salaries, insecure work and bad working conditions.
These diverse aspects are all the more important considering that Bangladesh is the country with the highest
population density in the world, is one of the most threatened by climate change, and has a large number of people
below the poverty line. Consumers in countries importing Bangladeshi shrimp must navigate different one-sided
perspectives and rarely have a balanced opportunity to weigh advantages and disadvantages, to help them judge
what ethical and sustainable aquaculture production and consumption should look like. In this discussion the
voice of the most affected is rarely heard: the Bangladeshi farmers.
I spent three weeks in the field in Bangladesh in December 2012 to get an impression of the shrimp ‘value-chain’
to be able to tell a story of Bangladeshi shrimp to European consumers 4 . In the following pages, I want to give my
perspective on whether the trade of shrimps from Bangladesh to Europe can be considered as sustainable and
ethical, based on the things I saw and the people I spoke to. The narrative is my own, and tells the story of how
I came to discover the Bangladeshi shrimp sector. My background is in International Economics with a focus
on trade and sustainable (rural) development, and working experience in the field of certification of sustainable
products and research on ethics in sciences and humanities. Before embarking on this project my knowledge of
shrimp aquaculture was limited to what I had read, and I had never been to Bangladesh before, so this presented
1 Kruijssen et. al., 2012
2 Haque, M.M., Wahab, M. A., Little, D.C. and Murray F.J. (2012)
3 Paul, B.G. and Vogl, C.R. (2012)
4 This research was conducted according to an approach combining methods in ethnography and rapid rural appraisal,
which find widespread expression in the fields of development studies for example. Observations were made along
the length of the value chain, and the surrounding communities, combined with semi-structured interviews with key
stakeholders. Fifteen organic and fifteen conventional shrimp famers were interviewed about one hour each, with their
selection allowing for a diverse accounts as possible; ranging from large scale to small scale farmers, as well as from rich
to poor. Moreover, one semi-intensive large scale farmer was interviewed. In addition three experts from the praxis in
favour and three against shrimp farming where interviewed. Moreover two Professors from Khulna University enriched
the research perspective. Beside the shrimp farmers I interviewed three rice farmers and six middlemen in different selling
positions, as well as a depot owner and the Organic Shrimp Processing Company in Shatkira.
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an eye-opening voyage of discovery for me too. This research was undertaken within the auspices of a European
Commission 7th-Framework-funded research project ‘Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade’, or ‘SEAT’. Where
possible my own experiences of Bangladeshi shrimp were augmented with research results gleaned from SEAT,
but it must be emphasised that this narrative is my own, and is not representative of the whole SEAT Project.
This narrative will be as broad as possible, following the whole value-chain of conventional and organic shrimp including
the historical, social, economic, environmental and cultural aspects, and trying not to lose the people and
their stories between the facts. Let me share my journey, following one shrimp through the whole conventional
supply-chain, with a focus on the problems that arise, and listening to the farmers’ views. I will also present the
alternative presented by ‘organic shrimp’, which claims to be more environmentally friendly and socially just, and
demonstrate its opportunities and barriers.
The story of a shrimp born into the conventional supply-chain in Bangladesh
The history of the shrimp industry in Bangladesh is an explosive one, described both in terms of rapid growth and
growing pains. The industry has certainly had a chequered past (see Box 1). Today, 250,000 - 300,000 Bangladeshi
shrimp farmers are producing about 170,000 million tons of shrimp per year 5 in a cultivation area of over 217,877
ha of land 6 , mainly in the districts around Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat in the south-west of Bangladesh. This
area for shrimp cultivation has doubled in the last 20 years. In total about 1.2 million people are working along the
entire shrimp production value-chain: growing, harvesting, transporting, processing and selling. Following the
whole value-chain of shrimp, I was truly amazed at how many hands are involved in bringing the shrimp from the
farmers’ pond to Europeans’ plates. But let us follow the life of one shrimp, step by step (see Figure 1).
Box 1: A historical perspective; from subsistence rice farming to an exploding shrimp industry
Shrimp farming in Bangladesh is a very young industry. The industry started “by coincidence”. About 40 years
ago some small rice farmers discovered that the market price for the wild shrimp that had naturally entered
their ponds was very high, and started to deliberately collect the shrimp fry from the rivers to be able to
cultivate shrimp in their ponds. As the demand for shrimp in countries of the global north increased in the
1980s, farmers started to introduce saline water into their rice fields to foster flourishing shrimp farming. It
was from this point that conventional shrimp cultivation started, and saw large farmers, politically influential
people and organizations enter the sector. A complex and chaotic system of shrimp selling and processing
developed. At the same time, issues of land grabbing occurred as shrimp farming became favoured as very
profitable. The landless populations and marginalized farmers were particularly affected, and were ‘forced’ to
leave and find work catching juvenile or post larvae (PL) shrimp in the wild. From the 1980’s onwards, international
and national organizations started to support poor and marginal rice farmers to adopt shrimp farming,
and pushed the industry to new heights, though unfortunately without addressing some of its ill-effects.
While in the beginning shrimp farming was highly profitable, it also became seen as very risky, with viral diseases
entering the country from Thailand in 1984 and destroying the whole harvest at that time. Some research institutions,
like the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute, started to look into methods to reduce the risk from these
infections, including through crop rotation and water treatment, but the risk from disease still remains to this day.
As the industry matured it started to address its negative impacts, which were drawing increasing criticism
from both national and international groups. The Bangladeshi government banned the removal of mangrove
forests through fishing in 1989 and the collection of wild shrimp fry in 1995, to halt the destruction of mangrove
forests and river biodiversity. Shrimp post larvae (PL) started to be grown in special hatcheries. More
regulation concerning quality and the use of pesticides followed after the European Union banned the import
of shrimp for three months in 1997 due to unhygienic production, poor quality products and corrupt practices.
Since 2005 international and local NGOs have raised questions on the sustainability of the sector and
different governmental and non-governmental organizations were formed to improve the quality of farmed
shrimp, their traceability and the social and environmental impacts of the sector. One of these is the Organic
Shrimp Project that claims to present a sustainable alternative to the conventional shrimp production.
5 Fisheries Resources Survey System, 2007, cited in Kruijssenet. al., 2012
6 Haque, M.M., Wahab, M. A., Little, D.C. and Murray F.J. (2012)
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From the hatchery to the nursery…
Our shrimp first sees the light in this world in one of the 60 private
sector hatcheries in Cox’s Bazar, in the south-east of Bangladesh,
probably in January. A hatchery is where the shrimp eggs are
grown to the post-larvae (PL) stage. The hatcheries have a system
of tanks for water treatment, and raise the small naupli (the first
stage after hatching) in aerated tanks, where algae and plankton
are encouraged to grow to feed them, before moving the naupli to
different ponds for the later stages of their growth. While many of
the PL used to be caught in the rivers, today wild fry collection is
prohibited to protect the local ecosystems. Now 80% of the shrimp
originate in hatcheries and only 20% are caught in the wild. Our
shrimp grows bigger and bigger before one day it is caught by a net
and transported by car, bus (80% survive) or airplane (100% survive) to the nursery in the cultivation areas in the
south-west of Bangladesh. Here our shrimp stays for some days to recover from the journey and become familiar
with the local water, before being released into its new home: green little ponds in traditional extensive 7 shrimp farms.
…to the farm…
The farmer prepares the shrimp pond every winter and constructs
stable dikes that allow a water depth of about 1.5m. With
a canal system, the farmer channels in the saline water from a
nearby river. In the pond, our shrimp lives together with other
aquatic species, including different species of fish, crabs and
frogs; all living together in water rich with algae and plankton
that serve as food. Some shrimp are cultivated in semisaline
water where they share their space with rice and other
fish species. The farmers call this polyculture production in
‘ghers’. The shrimp grows until it is about 4 months old, when it
has the urge to travel back to the sea to breed. When the moon
is in the correct phase and the tides are high, our shrimp decides to start its travel and swims around the pond to
find its way out. But the farmer has put net traps in the pond to trap our shrimp.
…then via the middle-man…
Early in the morning the farmer harvests our shrimp from the trap, and takes it to a nearby shrimp market in
a bag, where it is sold to a ‘middle-man’. There are a number of different routes for how the shrimp reaches the
processing plant:
1. A Local Purchaser is waiting somewhere on the street in the local village
close to the ponds. The shrimp is weighed and then the farmer and
purchaser bargain about the price. The purchaser normally gets 2 % in
commission. The shrimp is then kept in a bag or bucket with water, until
it is taken in the afternoon to a depot.
2. A ‘Foria’, is a kind of middleman that waits in the local market for the
shrimp or collects it directly from the farm. The shrimp is sorted and inspected
on the floor before the farmer and Foria bargain about the price.
The shrimp then stays in a bag without ice until it is taken to a depot at
lunch time or in the afternoon.
3. A ‘Set’ is a kind of small store in the shrimp market, with a desk in front
of it. First the shrimp are weighed, then displayed on the desk and the
7 Here a distinction can be made between extensive, semi-intensive and intensive aquaculture based on the levels
of inputs of feed, fertilizer or energy, and the stocking density. Intensive aquaculture typically supports the maximum
possible stocking density, by relying on commercial feed and through oxygenating the ponds. Extensive aquaculture has
stocking densities closer to that which might occur ‘naturally’, and largely encourage the growth of naturally-growing
plants and plankton as feed, with this at times supplemented by other locally-produced feeds like cereals, or agricultural
by-products. No oxygen needs to be added to the ponds.
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price is negotiated. As soon as it is sold, the weight and price is documented and the shrimp are stored in a box
with ice. The owner of the ‘Set’ gets a commission of 2-3%. From here the shrimp are taken to a depot. Normally
the farmers are paid the negotiated price, but sometimes farmers take out loans with the ‘Set’, for the preparation of
their pond for example, and in this case the farmer receives a lower price for the shrimp so as to pay back the loan. 8
4. A ‘Sub-depot’, is a small room somewhere in the village, where farmers can bring the shrimp. Here they are
weighed and then they bargain over the price. Once the price is agreed, it is written down and then the shrimp are
kept the shrimp in a small water container sometimes overnight before they are transported to the depot.
…to the depot…
Via all four routes, the shrimp finds its way to a depot; a single room with some boxes and ice, where they are
weighed again and stored in ice. There our shrimp stays until a truck picks it up and takes it to one of 145 processing
plants (though only 65 are operational) which have a combined capacity of about 265,000 million tons.
Delivery to the processing plant can be once a day or every other day or even every third day.
…and on to the processing plant.
Here it gets cold for our shrimp. It is washed and sorted by
an automatic machine, its head is removed by the processing
workers (mainly female), it is washed again, gutted and cleaned
inside, frozen, packed and stored…ready for a long trip to Europe
(50.07%), the USA (26,8%), India (7,8%) or Japan (3,6%) 9 ,
or for dinner in a middleclass Bangladeshi home (though only
3% are consumed within Bangladesh). The shrimp from the
processing plant are monitored by the National Fish Inspection
and Quality Control Service to make sure that they are of
a good quality, with no traces of pesticides or antibiotics. They
approve processing plants and take shrimp samples to a lab,
where they give permission for export or halt processing in case of pesticide residues. When our shrimp arrives
in Europe, it likely enters the retail or foodservice chain and is sold to a supermarket from where it finally gets
prepared in a restaurant or private kitchen.
Figure1: A representation of the conventional Bangladeshi shrimp supply chain
8 Note in this case the ‘Set’ is acting as a small scale micro-lender with the farmers’ current and future shrimp production
being the security for the small scale loans or credit
9 Kruijssen et. al., 2012
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What are the issues facing the conventional Bangladeshi shrimp value-chain?
1. Quality and Traceability
The quality of Bangladeshi shrimp can in the majority of cases be considered as quite high at the time of harvesting,
because a significant number of farmers engage in extensive production which does not use any harmful chemicals.
This noted, there are still many farmers who use chemicals, especially if there is disease, and the high number
of small farmers makes general conclusions difficult. It is post-harvest that the quality of the shrimp can at times
deteriorate, for a number of reasons. First, the long and uncontrolled system of selling the harvested shrimp,
where the middlemen (foria, sub-depot and set) rarely store the shrimp with ice, but rather in unhygienic conditions,
sometimes for extended periods of time in warm temperatures. Second, as the weight and price agreed on
with the farmer is not documented, there is also a financial incentive to manipulate the weight of the shrimp by injecting
(dirty) water or gelatine into the body of the shrimp. Third, when the shrimp arrive at the processing plant,
it is normally not possible to retrace where the shrimp has come from, how it was produced, who sold it at what
price to the depot, and how old it is. With this lack of traceability and the complex supply-chain, it makes quality
assurance impossible. Even the best processing plants cannot improve the quality of what arrives through their
doors. As conventional processing plants do not open their doors to foreigners, due to controversy surrounding
working conditions in the past, I could not visit them. However, there is some evidence that the conventional
processing plants do not always follow high hygienic standards.
2. The insecurity and powerlessness of the shrimp farmers
While prices between retailer and the processing plants are negotiated, at the lower end of the value-chain among
fry collectors and middlemen bargaining is very limited. Small farmers depend very often on larger, dominant
buyers and have very little ability to influence the price 10 . Beside the fact that the farmers are mainly price takers,
they face some other disadvantages: Firstly, the price is very unstable and can fluctuate greatly. Secondly, farmers
lose a part of their profit because they have to pay a fee to the middlemen and the payment is irregular. Thirdly,
only rarely do they receive payments directly. Usually farmers need to wait between 2 weeks and up to 3 months
for payment, and sometimes they are never paid. Moreover, the payment is normally not documented, hindering
any transparency. For the farmer, especially if he is very poor and uneducated, this means a lot of stress selling
and bargaining the price in the market and then not having the security of receiving payment, making it impossible
to plan for the future, and even impossible to support his family in acceptable living conditions. Some of the
poorer farmers have had to take out loans, because they do not have the means to save money and are unable to
accommodate the irregular prices and payments on their own. Compared to the time when the farmers produced
rice, now only the richer farmers still have rice farming land and the poor have to buy all their rice at the market.
Therefore, in terms of food securety, many small-scale and poor farmers are not self-sufficient anymore.
10 USAID Bangladesh, 2006
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3. Environmental issues and animal welfare
Shrimp farming increasing soil salinity
Shrimp production is highly criticized in the public discourse for its environmental impact, especially its effect
on the salinity of the soil 11 . Through the construction of canals and the flooding of the former rice fields with salt
water, the soil quality is affected. Some people even equate these regions to ‘deserts’, because of the high levels
of salinity. The Bangladesh Soil Research Institute describes the growth in saline areas and the rise of areas with
high salinity as “truly alarming” 12 . It affects mainly the coastal areas, where 30% of Bangladesh’s cultivable land is
situated.
However it should be considered, that the reasons for this increase in salinity are numerous and the shrimp production
itself only contributes partly to this problem. Firstly, the effect of climate change has to be considered.
Bangladesh is one of the most affected countries from climate change 13 . With rising sea levels, and an increase
in extreme weather conditions, this sees salt water from the ocean surging further inland along the rivers, and
through an increase in temperature, the salinity in the rivers increases even more. Secondly, the fresh water control
of India contributes significantly to salinity. Through the embankment dam (Farakka Barrage)in India the
pressure of fresh water in the rivers decreases and allows seawater to extend further up-river.
With the increased salinity of the soil, rice farming becomes less productive, with rice having little tolerance for
saline soils. In some coastal regions agriculture is only possible once a year, during the wet seasons, whereas in
more fertile highland regions rice can be grown up to 3 or 4 times a year. Shrimp production can be seen as an adaptation
of former rice farmers to the changes in their environment; as rice production has become less profitable
on the low-lands, shrimp production has become a more suitable use of the land 14 . Moreover, while prices for rice
have been constant, the international demand for aquaculture products has risen sharply, providing farmers with
important market signals to swap rice farming for more profitable shrimp production in these areas. However,
this shrimp cultivation is contributing to higher levels of salinity in the ponds and surrounding areas, particularly
in the absence of water management ‘best practice’, such as alternating saline water in the ponds with fresh water,
or drying out the ponds during the winter months. This means that when farmers in an area start to use salt water
for shrimp production, their rice farming neighbours are often forced to also switch to aquaculture production,
since rice production becomes impossible.
“The main aim should be to identify the suitable area for
different types of production and use it for that in order to
be efficient and provide, in the end, enough food for everyone.
The coastal areas are normally good for shrimp farming
because of the salt water and shrimp. For the moment
the shrimp farming area should not be expanded artificially,
but the goal should be to increase the productivity
within the suitable areas in an environmentally friendly
way.” Dr. Khandaker Anisul Hug, Professor at Khulna
University in Fisheries and Marine Resource Technology.
The harmful use of chemicals in shrimp aquaculture
The harmful use of fertilizer and pesticides in shrimp aquaculture can affect soil quality, the ground water and the
local ecosystem. Many farmers reported that they learned shrimp farming from their neighbours and that in case
of any problem in their pond; they visit the local chemical shop to ask for help. People I spoke to said that normally
the shopkeeper is not especially fluent in aquaculture ‘best practice’ and is just steered by what is written on the
back of the bottle. I spoke with Dr. Khandaker Anisul Hug at Khulna University and he said:
“The main problem is the lack of information and education of the farmers, which as a consequence leads in some
cases to irresponsible actions like the wrong use of chemicals and poor water management. Training is neces-
11 See e.g. SSNC (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riIn4RSwYGE)
12 Siehe Ahsan, Mainul et al. (2012): Saline Soils in Bangladesh. Soil fertility Assessment, Soil degradation, and its Impact
on Agriculture Program. Soil Resource Development Institute, Dhaka.
13 Brouwer at al. (2007): Socioeconomic Vulnerability and Adaptation to Environmental Risk: A Case Study of Climate
Change and Flooding in Bangladesh
14 Prawn on the other hand can be produced in fresh or slightly saline water i.e. brackish, that’s why its name is also
the Fresh Water Prawn
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8
sary to emphasize the importance of environmentally friendly
production and to enable the farmer to follow good and efficient
farming practices.” But it has to be considered that this
is a general problem which is also true for modern monoculture
rice farming and waste management. “These subjects and
broader environmental problems need to be integrated in the
whole educational system to raise awareness.”
Generally in extensive traditional shrimp farming no artificial
feed is used, which reduces its impact on the natural
environment when compared to intensive farms. Across
the whole of Bangladesh there exist only four semi-intensive
shrimp farms, because they are considered as not
profitable, with a higher risk of disease and also higher input costs. To reduce the risk of diseases, the water
in semi-intensive farms is disinfected with chlorine, but this also removes most of the naturally-occurring
feed in the ponds (e.g. algae), which is then insufficient to support such high stocking densities. The farmer
must therefore supply artificial (pelletized) feed. Moreover the higher stocking densities and the use of artificial
feed make it necessary to aerate the water by electric “paddlewheels”, to maintain healthy oxygen levels.
Therefore, the main increase in input costs of semi-intensive farming are associated with feed and electricity.
Impacts of aquaculture on biodiversity
There has also been some critique levelled at shrimp farming
for destroying the local biodiversity. But what I have seen from
the shrimp harvests were a huge range of different aquaculture
species in the pond, ranging from crabs and small insects, to a
variety of fish. Some of these find their way naturally into the
ponds and some are stocked and grown deliberately. Therefore
aquaculture (meaning integrated polyculture) is a more appropriate
term than shrimp production. This is confirmed by SEAT
project research 15 that notes that in most farms that were surveyed
there was a high biodiversity in the pond. The larger, edible
species of fish contribute to about half of a farmers income
from the ‘gher’ through sale on the local market, but they also
augment a family’s own consumption and even provide ‘food gifts’ for their relatives, friends and the poor. The
smaller pond life serves as natural feed to the shrimp. Compared to modern monoculture rice production, shrimp
farming provides more security for the farmer in the form of a diversity of income options, and can be considered
more environmentally neutral. What is notable, however, is that the biodiversity of vegetation on the banks of the
ponds is reduced, because only salt tolerant plants can grow. Moreover shrimp farming in the early years went
hand in hand with the destruction of valuable mangrove forests, which represented a significant source of local
biodiversity and contributed to oxygen production. Now there are regulations protecting these mangrove forests.
The welfare of farmed shrimp
15 Carbonara (2012)
16 Sandøe and Simonsen (1992)
17 Hastein, Scarfe and Kunde (2005)
The welfare of the shrimp in shrimp farms is rarely considered
by shrimp producers or consumers. Animal welfare is most
commonly concerned with the well-being of animals relative
to their ability to feel pain, fear or suffering; often described in
terms of a hierarchy of species from those animals most able
to suffer like chimpanzees, down to those unable to suffer like
crustaceans or molluscs 16 . Using this hierarchy many see that
shrimp as invertebrates do not have the sophisticated nervous
system needed to experience feelings of suffering, with this
backed-up by the science for the time being 17 . This actually saw
well-known animal ethicist Peter Singer (1990) drawing a bottom-line
on this hierarchy ‘somewhere between a shrimp and

a mussel’ when considering which animals should be considered able to suffer. In this way, for those producers
and other in the value chain I spoke to animal welfare was not a very important consideration for shrimp farming.
However this noted, there are a number of factors that might stress shrimp and affect the quality of the shrimp
products, including the quality of the water in the farm and the stocking density, the quality of the feed, the way
the shrimp are transported, any outbreak of disease, and the way the shrimp are killed for processing 18 . Many of
these factors will by definition affect the growth rates and well-being of the shrimp and then also their quality
within the post-harvest transportation phase. As such this in turn will effect market prices and the incomes and
profitability of the producers themselves. As such it is in their interest to be more concerned with welfare.
4. Social Issues: Working conditions, inequality and gender
The effect of shrimp aquaculture on women and the landless
There are different views on the social impacts of shrimp farms.
While land-owners, including rice farmers, have been affected,
there has been a much more significant impact on the people
who depend on the work at the farms; the landless and marginal,
small-scale farmers. Some research gives evidence that there
are fewer working opportunities in shrimp farming compared
to rice farming 19 , while other research shows that there is more
work available 20 . I myself came across this same disagreement in
my discussions with the Bangladeshi people. What they agree
on is that shrimp farming most heavily affects the landless and
poor women. As women traditionally worked in agriculture,
there is now less work for them. Some women also stated that
they preferred the work in the rice fields, because the casual labour on the shrimp farms is more physically demanding.
Employment along the shrimp supply-chain is usually characterized by insecure and seasonal casual labour in
farming, processing and fry catching. Moreover, there is widespread gender discrimination along the shrimp supply-chain,
with women getting only about 60% of the wages men earn 21 , particularly in the processing plants where
60-80% of workers 22 are female. The selling and auctioning, as well as farming is almost execusively done by men.
Food security
Shrimp is considered as “good for the rich and bad for the
poor”, particularly in terms of food security. The landless
and small scale farmers are worst affected by the increase in
soil salinity, as their vegetable and fruit production is hampered
or more expensive. They become dependent on buying
their food from the market and need therefore a higher income
through daily labour. Also the quantity of wild fish in
the rivers or homestead ponds is reduced, forcing them to
buy more at the market. This also leads to changes in social
interaction, as in Bangladesh the ability to present gifts to
guests, friends and relatives is considered as very important.
Everywhere I went the people were very happy if they could
offer me some fresh fruit from their own garden. Overall ‘polyculture’ and engaging in a variety of economic
activities is becoming more and more important; where families have a diversity of different livelihood strategies
this improves their security. Some small farmers would prefer growing rice, but as their neighbours switched
to shrimp farming they had to do the same. However, normally this was considered a profitable alternative.
18 Conte (2004)
19 eg. Datta et al. (2010) state that the work would be reduced to only 25% of the work in rice farming; Primavera 1997
found out, that culturing one hector of an average rice crop requires around 76 working days while extensive shrimp culture
only needs 45 working days
20 e.g. Steinberg (2012) concludes that the shrimp industry rather increased labour opportunities than decreased
(Steinberg 2012: 24)
21 Steinberg 2012: p.17; USAID Bangladesh, 2006
22 Ahmed et al., 2008; cited in Kruijssen et. al., 2012
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Working conditions
The working conditions at the farms and in the processing
plants have, especially in the past, been criticized due to long
working hours, a lack of work contracts, poor housing, child
labour and an unhealthy working environment. Even though
the Bangladesh government set minimum wages for workers
in the shrimp processing industry, a study of SAFE (2012) discovered
in interviews with 700 permanent and contract workers
in 2010 that nearly 25% of permanent workers and 75% of
contract workers did not get those minimum wages. Moreover
the majority did not receive breaks and meals as laid out in the
Bangladesh Labour Act 2006, nor did they receive their salary
in time. Furthermore, 96% of the respondents reported that
children/teenagers between 14-18 years were working in their plants 23 . As I could not visit a conventional processing
plant I cannot pass any personal judgment on this, but it has to be considered that bad working conditions,
gender discrimination and child labour are not a specific problem of only the shrimp industry, but are endemic to
all industries in Bangladesh (compared to garments, leather, etc. 24 ).
Broader questions on the sustainability of global food trade?
Finally, shrimp production fosters discussions on whether international trade is positive or not; whether food
should be produced regionally or globally. For shrimp this question is especially salient, because shrimp is considered
as a luxury food product in the western world, meaning the shrimp farmers become dependent on the
economic well-being of the west. In case of a financial crisis and recession in Europe and other western economies,
the demand for shrimp will probably decrease, as happened in 2009.
Figure 2: Worldmap of shrimp export from Bangladesh
23 SAFE, 2012
24 Paul-Majumder et al. (2000), Absar (2001)
10
USA
26.80%
Europe
50.07%
India
7.8%
Japan
3%

Can conventional shrimp farming be considered ethical or sustainable?
From a European point of view, sustainable development is still largely considered as „development which meets
the needs of current generations without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs”
(definition of the Brundtland Commission 1987 25 ). From this perspective, the economic, environmental and social
issues afflicting conventional shrimp farming may make it difficult for Europeans to call it sustainable or
ethical trade. But it is also important to couch notions of sustainability in the Bangladeshi cultural context and to
listen to the voices of the Bangladeshi conventional shrimp farmers, like that of Oshri Mridha for instance:
Oshri Mridha, 65 years old, non-organic shrimp farmer for the past 30 years.
”With rice farming I could not sustain my family, but now as a shrimp famer the
income is sufficient to eat well every day and pay for the studies of my son. I still do
the hard work in the field with the help of my son, and when the shrimp are affected
by disease it is difficult for the family to get enough food. The vegetables in the garden
are growing less because of the salinity of the area and the lack of grass makes it
difficult to feed the goats. The salt also affects the house and we need to reconstruct
the walls every year. But shrimp production is a good job and sustainable, because
in this region there is no other practical way to make an income and we are happy
now.”
MD Shabtar Rahran, 40 years old, non-organic shrimp farmer and local administrator.
“I think that shrimp farming is good for me and Bangladesh, because the
people in this area are now economically solvent and happier than when producing
rice. The lifestyle has improved a lot, new roads have been constructed and food
security is now a lot better than 20 years before when rice was sometimes not available
on the markets. The rice price is a little higher as we cannot produce it in this
area, but as the income is higher we can afford it. Shrimp farming has had a negative
impact on the environment; we are in a totally saline area and no rice can be grown
anymore, but there are enough rice fields in other parts of the country. With shrimp
farming we can sustain our families.”
Like Oshri Mridha and Shabatar Rahran, all of the other shrimp farmers I talked to highlighted the positive financial
aspects of shrimp farming. Many of them had problems sustaining their families before they engaged in
shrimp farming, even if they had rice for their own consumption. Environmental aspects were rarely mentioned,
but in the perspective of a poor farmer the most important thing is to have something to eat every day and some
kind of security that this does not change suddenly. For them sustainability means to receive a stable long-term
25 World Commission on Environment and Development (Brundtland Commission) in its report 1987
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income. Moreover shrimp farming has brought changes in local infrastructure, like roads, markets and more
schools to the areas, as more farmers become able to afford the costs of education.
Whose sustainability counts? Should we follow a European idea of what is ethical and sustainable, or should we
be steered by the voices of the most disadvantaged of our generation? Are future or present generations more
important? Ought we look at improving the welfare of those people living today, in Bangladesh for example, or
think rather of their children’s’ children. These questions are especially important when exploring the Bangladeshi
shrimp industry.
Creating ethical alternatives – the Organic Shrimp Project
Codes of Conduct, certification and education in good farming practices could provide ways of making aquaculture
in Bangladesh more ethical and sustainable, and to bring together the different views on what constitutes an
ethical and sustainable industry. To explore the opportunities and barriers of ethical shrimp production, I visited
the Organic Shrimp Project (OSP) in the south-west of Bangladesh. The OSP is a significant small-holder project
for organic shrimp production in the region of Satkhira in the southwest of Bangladesh. It was initiated in 2005 by
the Swiss Import Promotion Programme (SIPPO) and implemented in partnership with the local NGO Shushilan,
with the goal of promoting small and medium enterprises through providing training and consultation services,
and facilitating trade. When in 2007 the focus of SIPPO shifted towards Europe, Africa and Latin America, WAB
Trading International (Asia) Ltd took over responsibility and management of the project. The goal of the project
is to provide a sustainable alternative to wild fishing. Now more than 1800 farmers are certified organic as per
EU organic regulations, with this certification underwritten by the private German organic farmers association
‘Naturland,’ and monitored by an independent third-party body called ‘IMO`- Institute for Market-Ecology. By
the end of 2012, 250 people were employed in the OSP.
What is Organic Shrimp Farming?
Organic Shrimp Farming is an approach to aquaculture that follows the criteria of EU and other organic regulations,
to minimise any adverse effects on the environment. This means: (i) the protection of adjacent ecosystems;
(ii) a prohibition on the use of chemicals; (iii) natural treatment in the case of disease; (iv) employing only natural
and necessary inputs; and (v) a prohibition on the use of genetically modified organisms. It also demands an
extensive culture technique with a low stocking density (max 15 larvae/m 2 ). Organic shrimp farming does not allow
the use of any chemical inputs (such as fertiliser, pesticides or antibiotics), or wild caught PL (post larvae) for
stocking, and if feed is used it must be organic certified as well.
In the context of Bangladesh and the OSP, no artificial feed is used at all. The shrimp nourish themselves on food
naturally occurring in the ponds. The OSP supports the farmers to prepare natural compost for the regular use in
the shrimp farm to support the development of natural food. This allows the farmers to save on input-costs (like
chemical fertilisers) but nearly achieve the same production per hectare. In this way it increases the farmers’ profits,
while at the same time reducing the environmental impact. Moreover for this organic certification, 50-70% of
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the dikes surrounding the gher must be ‘greened’ with natural vegetation. To ensure traceability the farmer needs
detailed documentation about all inputs and outputs of his farm. In addition there are many more criteria regulating
the organic value-chain, from larvae to the processed product.
The Organic Shrimp Project – from a supply-chain to a value-chain
The OSP is organised with an Internal Control System (ICS), comprising of quality management procedures,
training and inspection undertaken by 47 staff members to ensure both compliance with organic regulations and
the quality of the product. One key aspect is to provide traceability. All farmers who want to join the OSP must
first sign a contract and are registered, including an evaluation of the actual status of their farm before joining the
OSP. Every pond is registered in a GPS system together with information on its important features. Following this,
the farmer receives training on the following topics:
1. General issues of organic shrimp farming
2. Pre-stocking management; how to prepare a shrimp pond organically
3. Stocking management, and compost and Bokashi (another type of compost) preparation
4. Post-harvest and treatment management, such as how to ice the shrimp to obtain best quality
At least once a year every farmer is evaluated on a broad variety of issues and there are all sorts of quality tests.
After the first approval of the farmer as “organic”, he receives his own OSP Identification Card and can sell to the
collection centres.
Box 2: The day a “mad magician” came – the story of Md. Abdur Rahim
Mr. Rahim is 51 years old and lives with his wife, his son and his grandson in a little house in the rural region of
Kaliganj. Life is not always easy in this region, with Mr. Rahim having lost two daughters. After finishing school
20 years ago, he became a “rice paddy” farmer like his father. When shrimp cultivation came to the area, he also
started to grow shrimp in the low lying areas of his land, where rice farming was risky and harvests were little. At
first shrimp farming was very profitable and his financial situation improved. But then diseases began to threaten
his shrimp and harvests were lower. He had to take out a loan with his father-in-law to survive, and as he could not
pay back the money, this caused some problems in the family.
One day, a man came to his field (Mr.Aksya, the manager of the Organic Shrimp Project (OSP)). The man told him,
that he should prepare and treat his gher in an “organic” way, to increase profits from his ponds. He should stop
using fertilizer and chemicals and use organic compost instead. This would reduce his cost of pond preparation,
reduce the risk of diseases and increase the productivity of the pond. The other farmers laughed at this man and
called him a “mad magician” – how can it be possible to reduce the inputs and still harvest the same or even more?
But Mr.Aksya persisted, and as Mr. Rahim’s situation became more hopeless, he finally accepted to meet with
Mr.Aksya. In this meeting the organic principles and rules were explained, and Mr. Rahim decided to trust the organic
way of production for one year, to see what happens. Together with Mr. Rahim only a few farmers in the area
decided to start organic shrimp farming.
Mr. Rahim and the others received basic training from the OSP to become some of the first organic shrimp farmers
in Bangladesh. They reduced the cost of inputs and found organic alternatives, without using any chemicals.
The result was incredible: very big shrimp. This convinced Mr. Rahim and he continued growing in an organic way.
Indeed, the other farmers of the area (totally 140) were also convinced by these good results and joined the OSP in
the same year.
Now, five years later, the financial situation of Mr. Rahim has
changed for the better. Every year he is able to save some money
and was able to buy three more bigha of land (1 ha = 7,5bigha).
He constructed a small house with electricity, and has a TV and a
fridge. He was able to purchase a motorcycle and can afford to buy
medicine for himself and his family, and pay for the studies of his
son. Other farmers do not laugh anymore, but come and ask him
how he is cultivating the shrimp. Mr. Rahim is one example. Like
him there are many farmers who have had the same problems. A
lot of people have sold their land and house and migrated to India
or Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, to become rickshaw-drivers.
Besides shrimp farming Mr. Rahim grows also many kinds of fruit
and vegetables, cultivated by his wife, and he still has rice paddy
fields for their own consumption.
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The OSP has a totally different and shorter value-chain to conventional shrimp production. In the organic valuechain
the harvested shrimp are put into an insulated container with ice, which sees the shrimp fall into a ‘sleeping’
state at 0-5 degrees celsius. From here the shrimp is brought
directly to a ‘collection centre’, which in some ways combines
the role of the ‘middle-men’ and the ‘depot’ in the conventional
shrimp chain, under the supervision of internal inspectors.
Here, at the collection centre parts of the shrimp are removed
before they are sorted in size, weighed, iced again and the price
is documented with the farmers’ identification number. The
price is fixed for every harvest (new/full-moon), as calculated
on the basis of the international organic shrimp price. The
shrimp is then transported in a truck directly to the nearby
processing plant where it is processed the same day, and remains
continuously at -18 C. The shrimp farmer receives their
payment within 2-3 days.
The PL used by organic farmers are produced in an approved hatchery, clearly separated from conventional PL,
as well as controlled and certified. The main difference is that no chemicals or medicines are used for the organic
production; only natural inputs. The price of the organic PL is higher because they take longer to grow. The OSP
collection centre receives orders for the PL from the farmers in advance, then collects the PL and distributes them
to the farms, making it easier and quicker for farmers to access high quality PL, with a lower risk of disease.
At the specialised processing plant only organic shrimp is produced, to avoid mixing them with conventional
shrimp products. As it was not possible to enter a conventional processing plant, I cannot compare the quality
and working conditions, but there is some evidence that the organic processing plant I visited is of the highest
standard. To ensure high quality products, free of any traces of chemical inputs, taste and scientific tests are carried
out continuously and no shipment can leave without passing these tests. Within the OSP, value is added to the
product at every step (or at least the quality is not degraded), such that it can truly be called a ‘value-chain’. This is
not necessarily the case for the conventional supply-chain, where a lot of the ‘value’ of the shrimp is lost through
the more lengthy stages of selling, transporting and processing.
Finally, the Naturland certification and therefore also the OSP
are steered by broad social criteria, ranging from worker contracts
and working conditions, to gender justice and workers
associations. As it is culturally quite difficult at the moment to
realize some principles like gender equality or working contracts
in Bangladesh, the OSP tries to raise awareness on social
issues like workers’ rights and gender issues through additional
workshops and other activities. Naturland Certification
schemes also addresses mangrove reforestation, where shrimp
projects need to reinstate 60% of the mangrove forest that existed
prior to deforestation. As the OSP in Bangladesh is situated
in areas where no mangrove forest was destroyed at least
over the last 30 years, they are not affected by this regulation.
The organic shrimp is directly shipped to Hamburg (Germany) where it arrives after spending four to six weeks
at sea. Here it gets packed by a German packing company into the final packaging, designed for the different supermarkets
where it will be sold, before being transported to these supermarkets. The organic shrimp from OSP,
with added value compared to conventional shrimp, is sold to big supermarkets in the region like Aldi, Edeka
and ReWe, and additionally to some restaurants that purchase wholesale. For the moment the market is limited
to Germany, where organic food has a 3.9 % share of food sales 26 , however it is planned to soon expand to France.
Owing to economies of scale, large supermarkets were chosen as the main outlets, even though in Germany there
exist a broad range of organic food stores. In filling the large orders placed by large supermarkets, this reduces time
and resources needed to reach smaller retailers, and moreover, WAB International wants to make extensive small
holder organic shrimp available to the majority of the population, which are consumers in these supermarkets.
26 According to a study of the German Bund ökologische Lebensmittelwirtschaft e.V. (BÖLW) (2013): The Organic Sector
2013: Figures, Data, Facts.
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Does everyone benefit along the OSP value-chain?
Benefits for the farmers…
For the farmers, the main benefits of the OSP includes the higher income due to low input costs and higher
productivity, together with the security of a continuous income, even if the price they get for the shrimp is not
necessarily as high as they could receive from the middle men on good days, (verified in Paul, B.G. and Vogl, C.R.
(2012)). These advantages are captured in the voices of some of the organic shrimp farmers I spoke with:
Abdul Sattar, 32 years old, is an organic shrimp farmer. He is married and has a one-year-old daughter,
but works to support his extended family.
…and for the communities…
“Before switching to organic we faced problems every month to care for the family,
which has a total of 20 members. The fruit and vegetables around the house,
as well as the 5 bigha of land I lease for rice cultivation, are not sufficient and
it was necessary to use the profits from the shrimp farm to buy food from the
market as well. Before I used to sell the shrimp to a middleman, who did not
pay me directly and sometimes we had to wait two months for the income.
The price I got for the shrimp also varied a lot; sometimes it was very high,
sometimes very low. In the organic system I regularly receive cash in hand and
there is no need to worry. Switching to organic production I could increase my
production, which combined with the lower input cost, allows a higher overall
income. This consistency ensures that my family has enough to eat every day.”
Organic shrimp farming provides space for a new definition of community and opportunities for better community
development. The farmers get professional support to improve their farming techniques, including the
management of water and soil quality, and through this they become more sensitive to environmental and social
issues. Some farmers reported that they did not think much about ‘nature’ before they entered the OSP but that
the people are now more conscious of their natural environment. Moreover the organic farming is more labour
intensive, which is positive for the landless people who engage in work as daily labour.
Md Nurul Islam, 57 years old, is the president of one community and an
organic shrimp farmer.
”The main advantages of organic shrimp in my view can be seen in the whole
community; before the people were not solvent and engaged in illegal activities
in order to have enough to eat. There were a lot of thieves. Now they have
enough money and they can buy food and clothing. The poor often get the possibility
to fish Pangasius from the ponds.”
MD Masarof Hossain, 39 years old, rice farmer
“Since the Organic Shrimp Project started, the people in this region are more developed and also small scale
farmers can increase their income. I am personally not really affected by the conventional shrimp nor by
the organic shrimp, because my rice field is in a highland area and I cannot switch to shrimp production.”
…but, there are those left out.
Those actors most negatively affected by the OSP are largely those who were engaged in the conventional valuechain,
including the middlemen working as foria, at the depots and the auctioning centre, as well as the collectors
of wild fry and those providing chemicals and medicine as inputs to conventional farms. One of the middlemen
stated that his profits have decreased since the OSP started, from 200 taka (about 2 Euro) per day to only 20-30
taka per day, and he relies on another business he runs to survive. The OSP does provide work for 250 people in
the Internal Control System and collection centres, but they need comparatively fewer workers than the number
engaged in the conventional shrimp chain. This much noted, the OSP claims that jobs offered by them represent
full-time employment and further education, which is an improvement over the less certain, casual labour in the
conventional trade. The wild fry collectors around the large Sundarban national park, who are mainly poor and
landless people, are also likely to be negatively affected, but it must be remembered that wild fry catching is illegal
because it destroys the biodiversity of the rivers.
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Challenges and areas for improvement
The risk of disease
The main negative aspect of (organic) shrimp farming mentioned by all farmers is the risk of disease. This risk is generally
considered as lower if the quality of the PL and the water is high, and as this is normally the case in organic production,
the risk for diseases is a little lower compared to conventional production. But there are still cases of disease
which greatly affect the income of the farmers. More research on how to avoid disease outbreaks, together with training
for the farmers is necessary. One possibility could be the use of probiotics (like Lactobacillus), which are beneficial
bacteria that can increase the soil, water and feed quality. Researchers at Khulna University are investigating this.
The collection centre
The organic shrimp farmers were overall satisfied with their switch to organic, but noted some areas for improvement
in the value-chain. They noted that some issues arise at the collection centre during good and long harvests,
when the OSP cannot accept all the shrimp farmers bring, because the processing plant does not have sufficient
capacity to process the shrimp the same day. This forces farmers to sell some of their shrimp on the conventional
market, where the middlemen often offer a lower price out of spite that the organic farmers no longer rely on
them. The collection centre also limits the size of shrimp because the large shrimp are very expensive and rarely
bought on the European market, with this causing some difficulties for farmers. Finally, the farmers would like
to explore the possibility of selling the other fish species that grow in their ponds to the OSP collection centre.
The price farmers receive for organic shrimp
Some organic farmers are dissatisfied with the price offered for organic shrimp. They complain that the price they
receive for their high quality, environmentally friendly product is not necessarily higher, and sometimes even
lower than the conventional shrimp market price. However, all farmers I spoke with agreed that they will continue
selling to the collection centre, because of the good infrastructure and reliability of payments. The question of price
is an important one, with the OSP not certified fair trade and not (yet) fulfilling the criteria for becoming fair trade
certified. The price at the moment is fixed every harvest according to market prices. An alternative could be a ‘fair’
bargaining of the price with the representative of each area and the project management, or a price calculation that
includes a ‘fair trade’ premium. Farmers complained that the low price did not allow them to fully realise the organic
concept, which demands significant investment in things like ‘dike greening’. In comparison with the price the consumer
pay for the organic shrimp, the farmer gets approx. 25% as an income 27 . In different studies analysing the income
in comparison to the final selling price of other organically produced species, the same relation can be shown.
The greening of the dikes
As the OSP is relatively new, there remain some management
problems as well as criteria that are only basically met.
For example the dike greening could still be improved, as
few farmers are really successful in growing trees or vegetables
on their dikes. However, these examples show that it is
possible to promote some greenery; not only grass but also
mangrove and neem trees can be grown along the dikes, as
well as vegetables. A vegetable patch requires three years of
preparation, but they can provide an additional income as
well as food for the family. A special task is to make farmers
aware of the importance of dike greening to prevent erosion,
and that there are not any negative impacts on the shrimp.
Within the frame of a development project supported by the German government (GIZ), the OSP is working
in cooperation with Bangladesh Agricultural University to develop the most appropriate plantations for greening
dikes. The greenery must be able to cope with salt water and protect the dikes. The fruits of this research
will be passed on to the OSP farmers, but also to other communities and the government of Bangladesh. The
aim is to stabilize not only the dikes on the farms, but also the embankments; protecting land and people from
27 Price for Organic Shrimp in a German supermarket approx. 2 Euro per 100g; the farmer gets about 5 Euro (520 taka)
per kilo, what means 50 Cent per 100g.
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flooding and other natural hazards. This type of interaction between organizations provides spaces for further
holistic improvements to the shrimp industry in every sense: environmental, social, cultural and economic.
Maintaining ‘organic’ status
A central challenge for the project is to make sure that the product can be considered as organic. As there is a canal
system providing the saline water for the aquaculture, all shrimp farms rely on the same water, and are subject to the
same contaminants 28 . This is why the OSP implements farm clusters. The disadvantage is that this includes farmers
who may not be really convinced of organic principles and may be more likely to ‘cheat’, or not to comply with the
standards. To avoid this risk, the OSP has an internal control and certification system and farmers are punished or
excluded from the project in case of fraud. But this system demands significant monitoring, with high documentation
and staff and resource costs, as well as the cost of independent third party certification. This makes the product
more expensive. It could be more fruitful to realize more environmental education and less control to ensure that the
farmers are convinced of the worth of organic principles, while even developing their own solutions and innovations.
Social aspects
While the Naturland certification does also include social criteria
such as gender equality and working contracts, the project
has some difficulties in realising these criteria. The main reason
is cultural. How can one convince farmers to give equal payment
to female workers, when they are culturally accustomed
to paying them less? How can one persuade them to make contracts
with their daily workers, if they cannot read and without
money have no access to the courts? These issues demand a lot
of time, patience and education. The project started by initiating
training to explain these important subjects to farmers,
but it will take a long time to ensure the realization of these
social criteria. The Naturland Certification does have certain requirements to demonstrate an effort is being made
and advances taken as a result of the project, even accepting that these criteria cannot be changed immediately.
Creating markets for Bangladeshi organic shrimp
It is particularly challenging to sell organic shrimp in Europe, for two reasons. Firstly it is difficult to establish access
to supermarkets, as Bangladesh in general and particularly the shrimp industry, has had a bad image concerning corruption,
exploitation and poor quality. Moreover, big supermarkets prefer large-scale, intensive production where
they have supply chain security. According to the director of the OSP, Erdmann Wischhusen, the German food market
is especially focused on the price and there is very little consideration for ethical values when German consumers
are at the checkout. Even though the organic market in Germany is significant in comparison to other countries
in Europe, the majority of German consumers still buy their food in non-organic supermarkets, where relatively
few organic brands are offered and they are criticised for fulfilling only the most basic organic requirements. The
second challenge in selling Bangladeshi organic shrimp is related to convincing the consumer. With exotic shrimp
having been roundly criticised in the media in the past, it is difficult to convince consumers that organic, extensive
shrimp production can present a sustainable alternative to the monoculture rice production and the overfished sea.
Future developments and improvements
As the demand for organic shrimp is increasing, the new delivery commitments present new challenges expanding
the number of new farmers in the project. In the following year the goal of the OSP is to increase the number of
farmers from 1 800 to 3 000. The problem is that this will also necessitate greater coordination and bureaucracy as
well as financial investment for traceability and quality management, as well as the construction of the necessary
structure. In addition, the OSP is planning improvements in their communication both with the consumers and
the farmers, to increase farmers’ engagement and empowerment within farmer communities, and there is an idea
of developing access of farmers to bank accounts to increase their ability to save.
28 Beside the inflows into the ponds the outflows are very important in terms of disease transmission, if not separated
from the inflow canals.
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The future for Bangladeshi shrimp
Amongst the public controversy around conventional Bangladeshi shrimp are some arguments that are well justified,
while others not well grounded or are very one-sided. Conventional shrimp production brings, on the one hand,
economic profits for the farmers and foreign currency to Bangladesh, while on the other hand there are some negative
environmental and social impacts. It has to be considered that shrimp farming was internationally promoted
in the past and is an adaptation of the farmers to a changing landscape, brought on in large part by climate change
and India’s water management, such that coastal lowlands are today more suitable and profitable for shrimp aquaculture.
In these increasingly saline lowland soils, agriculture like rice farming is at the moment not productively
possible. Therefore it can meaningfully be argued that it is irresponsible to simply cut the trade of Bangladeshi
shrimp, leaving the 1.2 million people currently engaged in the industry, and their families, without any income.
The question should be how the cultivation of shrimp or other alternatives can be developed such that the trade
can be considered as ethical or sustainable from both Bangladeshi and European points of view. One approach
is presented by the Organic Shrimp Project, which has shown that the situation for the farmers, the environment
and the consumers can be greatly improved. As shrimp production in Bangladesh is mainly extensive, traditional
and family based, this presents a good starting point to promote more environmentally friendly and more socially
just shrimp production. Organic production potentially presents a more sustainable and ethical way forward both
in the short and long term, while also presenting a better option technically, though there is a lot of work needed
to convince the farmers to change their ways of production. Research and education will play an important role in
empowering people to judge on their own what they consider as positive for their country, their community and
their environment. The Organic Shrimp Project is still in its early stages and may not yet do enough to be called fully
sustainable, but in my point of view they should be encouraged to go one step further, together with the farmers.
Everybody needs to decide on his or her own whether it is ethical or sustainable to consume organic shrimp, taking
into account a number of broad considerations. These range from a broader discussion on the sustainability
of global food trade, to the opportunity for farmers of a very impoverished and climate change-ravaged country
to improve their situation in the short and the long run. What makes shrimp from Bangladesh so special are the
families and stories involved in the process of producing them, so that every shrimp has its own story.
Acknowledgements: I would like to acknowledge the support of the European Commission’s ‘SEAT Project’ for the
funding that made this research possible, the consortium partners from the University of Bergen for facilitating
this work, and the partners from the Bangladesh Agricultural University for organizing my trip in Bangladesh –
particularly Mohammed Haque and Roni. Thanks must also go to the wider consortium that contributed to this
final version of my ‘narrative’ with their comments.
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SSNC (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=riIn4RSwYGE); revised 14.03.2013
© Pictures and Layout: Loni Hensler
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