Shrimp — or prawns as they are most commonly called in the United Kingdom — are a big deal. Brits consume around 50,000 metric tons (MT) of the crustaceans each year, making them by far the country’s favorite shellfish. So when national newspaper The Guardian a few weeks ago broke details of its six-month investigation that’s claiming slavery is widely practiced aboard fishing vessels affiliated to the Thai shrimp feed industry, there were many fearing that the proverbial would hit the fan.
But while there are considerable reaction efforts going on behind the scenes, it is a very different story at a consumer level where it’s still very much business as usual. As serious as the allegations are and they have since been confirmed to some degree by leading players in Thailand’s shrimp industry, there has been no impact whatsoever on U.K. retail shrimp sales since the first article was published, confirmed a number of the country’s leading supermarkets last week. And it’s the same message from foodservice — shrimp sales are as strong as ever.
We shouldn’t necessarily be surprised by this lack of market response. We only have to turn the calendar back to last year and campaigning chef Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s own attack on the Thai shrimp farming industry for its use of so-called “trash fish” in cheap feeds to see how difficult it is to affect sales in this particular category.
Fearnley-Whittingstall’s TV program “Fish Fight: Save Our Seas” made no mention of slavery or worker abuse, instead it estimated that 25 percent of Thailand’s marine catch ends up being turned into fishmeal and added that the country’s waters are being overfished by 250 percent. He then went on to criticize those supermarket chains that were contributing to the problem by sourcing shrimp from Thai companies that he had found to be using such feeds. How did consumers react as a result of that documentary? Apart from 40,000 viewer Tweets to those retailers’ Twitter accounts with the message “What are your prawns eating?” there was no drop in shrimp sales or consumption.
While the issues are of a much stronger nature this time around, again there has been no consumer boycott. This is probably for the best as it’s broadly agreed that such a knee-jerk reaction would be to the detriment of the entire industry — the reason being that countries like Thailand will continue to produce shrimp on a massive scale and consumers everywhere will continue to buy them, so the former should be encouraged to openly address its problems. Most U.K. retailers and other major buyers, who already have their own ethics codes that prohibit the use of forced or slave labor, therefore believe the best policy is to stay connected to the supply chain.
This stance is typified by The Co-operative Food, who told SeafoodSource, “We would like to reassure customers that we share their concerns and are committed to addressing the issue of human trafficking on fishing boats by working collaboratively with suppliers, governments, unions and other organizations. Many workers and their families along this supply chain rely on this trade and we firmly believe that they all should be treated fairly. The Co-operative Food and its suppliers are actively engaged in a range of initiatives with the Ethical Trade Initiative and the International Labor Organization to improve standards.
“In addition, we have rigorous auditing systems in place and, where issues are identified, we will work with our suppliers to address these on a continuous improvement basis. All processing units supplying prawns have been independently audited and we have carried out a collaborative research project to gain a better understanding of working conditions beyond the processing level.”
Many stakeholders are expecting additional elements to come into play in the coming weeks, but already this latest episode will have served a strong reminder to retailers and other buyers that they need to exert more pressure on suppliers in Thailand and beyond to ensure complete traceability throughout the entire feed-to-food chain. It’s also being widely recommended that they should all implement a program of random social audits to ensure that their chains are clean and remain so.
Keep checking SeafoodSource for all the latest news on the Thailand human trafficking issue
