A simple infographic explanation regarding the Thai Shrimp Industry’s supply chain as a whole and the impact that could occur if Thai Shrimp were to be boycotted. So how close is the link between areas where forced labor may be happening and the Thai shrimp industry? One fifth of the shrimp global sales are from Thailand. Almost all of these shrimps are farm raised, produced by the 122 independent shrimp processing factories, with over 300,000 workers. Shrimps that enter the processing factories come from over 21,000 different farms with over 77,000 laborers. More than 85% of these farms are small independent businesses. Farmed shrimps are fed on domestically manufactured shrimp feed, They amount to 600,000 tons per year. The manufacture of shrimp feed provides more than 46,500 jobs. 90% of Shrimp Feed is made up of other ingredients while just only 10% of the ingredients come from fishmeal factories. These factories purchase small, left over fish from fishing vessels, which provide a livelihood for more than 190,000 fishermen. Thailand’s shrimp farming industry involves more than 620,000 laborers, which is about the same amount of population living in Washington D.C. All these laborers are working in Thailand legally. However, forced-labor is not to be taken lightly and it could exist on illegal vessels operating in international waters which rarely comes into port. These vessels are considered small number compared to legally operated vessels. So, the important question is, could forced-labor really be stopped by a boycott of Thai shrimp products? Investigating further, then will find that the main business of these large fishing vessels is to catch larger, more valuable fish for human consumption. All the other small fish, so-called by-catch, that may have been captured during the main fishing process, are then sold through wholesalers to fishmeal factories, where it is used to produce the fishmeal that makes up 10% of the shrimp feed. Therefore, if the whole Thai shrimp industry were to suffer, even then the illegal offshore fishing vessels that may be using forced-labor would only lose the small amount they earn from the small fish with little value. So a boycott of shrimp products from Thailand is very unlikely to affect the illegal fishing vessels suspected of using forced-labor. However, if the whole Thai shrimp industry were to collapse, 600,000 innocent, legal workers and laborers, over 2 million lives if you include their families, would have their livelihood destroyed. Forced-labor is a critical issue. Government institutions, officials, and police have been working very hard, as well as developing the law enforcement system, to tackle and solve this issue. At the same time, we, as a community, are doing everything we can to help. However well-intentioned, boycotting shrimp from Thailand could create crisis in the Thai shrimp industry which could lead to an even more severe problem. Boycotting Thai Shrimp will affect millions of legal, innocent workers and their families.

• published: 28 Aug 2014
• views: 14664