BANGKOK (AP) – Indonesian shrimp farmer Yulius Cahyonugroho operated more than two dozen ponds only a few years ago, employing seven people and making more than enough to support his family.
Since then, the 39-year-old said the prices he gets from purchasers have fallen by half and he’s had to scale back to four workers and about one-third the ponds, some months not even breaking even. His wife has had to take a job at a watermelon farm to help support their two children.
“It is more stable than the shrimp farms,” said the farmer from Indonesia’s Central Java province.
As big Western supermarkets make windfall profits, their aggressive pursuit of ever-lower wholesale prices is causing misery for people at the bottom end of the supply chain – people like Cahyonugroho who produce and process the seafood, according to an investigation by an alliance of NGOs focused on three of the world’s largest producers of shrimp provided to The Associated Press (AP).
The analysis of the industry in Vietnam, Indonesia and India, which provide about half the shrimp in the world’s top four markets, found a 20 to 60 per cent drop in earnings from pre-pandemic levels as producers struggle to meet pricing demands by cutting labour costs.
In many places this has meant unpaid and underpaid work through longer hours, wage insecurity as rates fluctuate, and many workers not even making low minimum wages. The report also found hazardous working conditions, particularly in India and parts of Indonesia, and even child labour in some places in India.
“The supermarket procurement practices changed, and the working conditions were affected – directly and rapidly,” said Katrin Nakamura of Sustainability Incubator, who wrote the regional report and whose Hawaii-based nonprofit led the research on the industry in Vietnam. “Those two things go together because they’re tied together through the pricing.”
The director general of aquaculture for Indonesia’s Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry Tubagus Haeru Rahayu said he was surprised by the report’s findings and had already reached out to people in the industry to investigate the price pressures.
“If there is pressure like that, there will definitely be a reaction – not only in Indonesia but in Vietnam and India too,” he told the AP in an interview at his Jakarta office.
Indian and Vietnamese officials refused to comment.
Supermarkets linked to facilities where exploited labour was reported by workers include Target, Walmart and Costco in the United States, Britain’s Sainsbury’s and Tesco, and Aldi and Co-op in Europe.
Switzerland’s Co-op said it had a “zero tolerance” policy for violations of labour law, and that its producers “receive fair and market-driven prices”.
Germany’s Aldi did not specifically address the issue of pricing, but said it uses independent certification schemes to ensure responsibly sourcing for farmed shrimp products, and would continue to monitor the allegations.
“We are committed to fulfilling our responsibility to respect human rights,” Aldi said.
Sainsbury’s referred to a comment from the British Retail Consortium industry group, which said its members were committed to sourcing products at a “fair, sustainable price” and that the welfare of people and communities in supply chains is fundamental to their purchasing practices.
None of the other retailers named in the report responded to multiple requests for comment on the report, titled Human Rights for Dinner.
In Vietnam, researchers found that workers who peel, gut and devein shrimp typically work six or seven days a week, often in rooms kept extremely cold to keep the product fresh.
Some 80 per cent of those involved in processing the shrimp are women who rise at 4am and return home at 6pm, with the exception of pregnant women and new mothers who can stop one hour earlier.
Wages are generally not disclosed ahead of time and are based upon production.
Sometimes workers make minimum wage, but frequently they do not.
The Vietnam Association of Seafood Exporters and Producers issued a statement calling the allegations in the report “unfounded, misleading and detrimental to the reputation of Vietnam’s shrimp exports.”
It cited government labour policies in a four-page statement but did not specifically address the findings, and did not respond to queries.
Cahyonugroho said he’s stuck selling his shrimp at the price offered by middlemen who then sell it to factories for processing. He can’t scrape together the startup costs needed to sell directly to factories or markets to earn more.
“The opportunity is there,” he said, “but you need a lot of capital if you want to jump into something like that.”
