A sustainable future for shrimp production in Bangladesh?

An ethical perspective on the conventional and organic supply chain of shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh.

Loni HenslerSEAT - Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade

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A sustainable future for shrimp production in Bangladesh?In recent years aquaculture has become more and more important for Asia, particularly in Bangladesh. It repre-sents the second largest export industry for Bangladesh a!er garments with 97% of the shrimp produced being exported1, contributing about 4% to national GDP2 and employing approximately 1.2 million people for produc-tion, processing and marketing activities. Including their families, this sees approximately 4.8 million Bangladeshi people directly dependent on this sector for their livelihood3. However, while the Bangladeshi shrimp industry grows, it has also drawn some controversy. Some groups argue in favour of the industry, asserting that it pro-duces nutritious food, releases the pressure on our over"shed 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 condi-tions. #ese 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 di$erent one-sided perspectives and rarely have a balanced opportunity to weigh advantages and disadvantages, to help them judge what ethical and sustainable aquaculture production and consumption should look like. In this discussion the voice of the most a$ected is rarely heard: the Bangladeshi farmers.

I spent three weeks in the "eld 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 consumers4. 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. #e 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 "eld of certi"cation 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

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an eye-opening voyage of discovery for me too. #is 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.

#is narrative will be as broad as possible, following the whole value-chain of conventional and organic shrimp in-cluding 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.

!e story of a shrimp born into the conventional supply-chain in Bangladesh

#e history of the shrimp industry in Bangladesh is an explosive one, described both in terms of rapid growth and growing pains. #e 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 year5 in a cultivation area of over 217,877 ha of land6, mainly in the districts around Khulna, Satkhira and Bagerhat in the south-west of Bangladesh. #is 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).

   

   

 

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From the hatchery to the nursery…

Our shrimp "rst sees the light in this world in one of the 60 pri-vate sector hatcheries in Cox’s Bazar, in the south-east of Bangla-desh, probably in January. A hatchery is where the shrimp eggs are grown to the post-larvae (PL) stage. #e hatcheries have a system of tanks for water treatment, and raise the small naupli (the "rst stage a!er hatching) in aerated tanks, where algae and plankton are encouraged to grow to feed them, before moving the naupli to di$erent 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 extensive7 shrimp farms.

…to the farm…

#e farmer prepares the shrimp pond every winter and con-structs 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 di$erent species of "sh, crabs and frogs; all living together in water rich with algae and plank-ton that serve as food. Some shrimp are cultivated in semi-saline water where they share their space with rice and other "sh species. #e farmers call this polyculture production in ‘ghers’. #e 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 "nd 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’. #ere are a number of di$erent routes for how the shrimp reaches the processing plant:

1. A Local Purchaser is waiting somewhere on the street in the local vil-lage close to the ponds. #e shrimp is weighed and then the farmer and purchaser bargain about the price. #e purchaser normally gets 2 % in commission. #e shrimp is then kept in a bag or bucket with water, until it is taken in the a!ernoon 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. #e shrimp is sorted and in-spected on the %oor before the farmer and Foria bargain about the price. #e shrimp then stays in a bag without ice until it is taken to a depot at lunch time or in the a!ernoon.

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

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Figure1: A representation of the conventional Bangladeshi shrimp supply chain

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. #e 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 "nds its way to a depot; a single room with some boxes and ice, where they are weighed again and stored in ice. #ere our shrimp stays until a truck picks it up and takes it to one of 145 pro-cessing 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 Eu-rope (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). #e shrimp from the processing plant are monitored by the National Fish Inspec-tion and Quality Control Service to make sure that they are of a good quality, with no traces of pesticides or antibiotics. #ey 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 "nally gets prepared in a restaurant or private kitchen.

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What are the issues facing the conventional Bangladeshi shrimp value-chain?1.   Quality and Traceability

#e quality of Bangladeshi shrimp can in the majority of cases be considered as quite high at the time of harvesting, because a signi"cant number of farmers engage in extensive production which does not use any harmful chemi-cals. #is noted, there are still many farmers who use chemicals, especially if there is disease, and the high number of small farmers makes general conclusions di&cult. 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 condi-tions, 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 "nancial incentive to manipulate the weight of the shrimp by in-jecting (dirty) water or gelatine into the body of the shrimp. #ird, 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.   !e 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 o!en on larger, dominant buyers and have very little ability to in%uence the price10. Beside the fact that the farmers are mainly price takers, they face some other disadvantages: Firstly, the price is very unstable and can %uctuate greatly. Secondly, farmers lose a part of their pro"t because they have to pay a fee to the middlemen and the payment is irregular. #irdly, 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 impos-sible 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. #erefore, in terms of food securety, many small-scale and poor farmers are not self-su&cient anymore.

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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 e$ect on the salinity of the soil11. #rough the construction of canals and the %ooding of the former rice "elds with salt water, the soil quality is a$ected. Some people even equate these regions to ‘deserts’, because of the high levels of salinity. #e Bangladesh Soil Research Institute describes the growth in saline areas and the rise of areas with high salinity as “truly alarming”12. It a$ects 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 pro-duction itself only contributes partly to this problem. Firstly, the e$ect of climate change has to be considered. Bangladesh is one of the most a$ected countries from climate change13. 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 con-trol of India contributes signi"cantly to salinity. #rough 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 ad-aptation of former rice farmers to the changes in their environment; as rice production has become less pro"table on the low-lands, shrimp production has become a more suitable use of the land14. 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 pro"table 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. #is means that when farmers in an area start to use salt water for shrimp production, their rice farming neighbours are o!en forced to also switch to aquaculture production, since rice production becomes impossible.

“!e main aim should be to identify the suitable area for di"erent types of production and use it for that in order to be e#cient and provide, in the end, enough food for every-one. !e coastal areas are normally good for shrimp farm-ing because of the salt water and shrimp. For the moment the shrimp farming area should not be expanded arti$-cially, 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.

!e harmful use of chemicals in shrimp aquaculture

#e harmful use of fertilizer and pesticides in shrimp aquaculture can a$ect 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 %uent 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:

“#e 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-

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sary to emphasize the importance of environmentally friendly production and to enable the farmer to follow good and ef-"cient farming practices.” But it has to be considered that this is a general problem which is also true for modern monocul-ture rice farming and waste management. “#ese subjects and broader environmental problems need to be integrated in the whole educational system to raise awareness.”

Generally in extensive traditional shrimp farming no ar-ti"cial 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-in-tensive shrimp farms, because they are considered as not

pro"table, 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 insu&cient to support such high stocking densities. #e farmer must therefore supply arti"cial (pelletized) feed. Moreover the higher stocking densities and the use of arti-"cial feed make it necessary to aerate the water by electric “paddlewheels”, to maintain healthy oxygen levels. #erefore, the main increase in input costs of semi-intensive farming are associated with feed and electricity.

Impacts of aquaculture on biodiversity

#ere 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 di$erent aquaculture species in the pond, ranging from crabs and small insects, to a variety of "sh. Some of these "nd their way naturally into the ponds and some are stocked and grown deliberately. #erefore aquaculture (meaning integrated polyculture) is a more appro-priate term than shrimp production. #is is con"rmed by SEAT project research15 that notes that in most farms that were sur-veyed there was a high biodiversity in the pond. #e larger, ed-ible species of "sh 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 gi!s’ for their relatives, friends and the poor. #e 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 signi"cant source of local biodiversity and contributed to oxygen production. Now there are regulations protecting these mangrove forests.

!e welfare of farmed shrimp

#e 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 su$ering; o!en described in terms of a hierarchy of species from those animals most able to su$er like chimpanzees, down to those unable to su$er like crustaceans or molluscs16. Using this hierarchy many see that shrimp as invertebrates do not have the sophisticated nervous system needed to experience feelings of su$ering, with this backed-up by the science for the time being17. #is actually saw well-known animal ethicist Peter Singer (1990) drawing a bot-tom-line on this hierarchy ‘somewhere between a shrimp and

Sandøe and Simonsen (1992)

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a mussel’ when considering which animals should be considered able to su$er. In this way, for those producers and other in the value chain I spoke to animal welfare was not a very important consideration for shrimp farming. However this noted, there are a number of factors that might stress shrimp and a$ect 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 processing18. Many of these factors will by de"nition a$ect the growth rates and well-being of the shrimp and then also their quality within the post-harvest transportation phase. As such this in turn will e$ect market prices and the incomes and pro"tability 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

!e e"ect of shrimp aquaculture on women and the landless

#ere are di$erent views on the social impacts of shrimp farms. While land-owners, including rice farmers, have been a$ected, there has been a much more signi"cant impact on the people who depend on the work at the farms; the landless and margin-al, small-scale farmers. Some research gives evidence that there are fewer working opportunities in shrimp farming compared to rice farming19, while other research shows that there is more work available20. I myself came across this same disagreement in my discussions with the Bangladeshi people. What they agree on is that shrimp farming most heavily a$ects 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 "elds, because the casual labour on the shrimp farms is more physically demand-ing. 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 sup-ply-chain, with women getting only about 60% of the wages men earn21, particularly in the processing plants where 60-80% of workers22 are female. #e 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. #e landless and small scale farmers are worst a$ected by the increase in soil salinity, as their vegetable and fruit production is ham-pered or more expensive. #ey become dependent on buying their food from the market and need therefore a higher in-come through daily labour. Also the quantity of wild "sh in the rivers or homestead ponds is reduced, forcing them to buy more at the market. #is also leads to changes in social interaction, as in Bangladesh the ability to present gi!s to guests, friends and relatives is considered as very important. Everywhere I went the people were very happy if they could

o$er me some fresh fruit from their own garden. Overall ‘polyculture’ and engaging in a variety of economic activities is becoming more and more important; where families have a diversity of di$erent 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 pro"table alternative.

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Working conditions

#e 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) dis-covered in interviews with 700 permanent and contract work-ers 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 plants23. As I could not visit a conventional process-ing 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 speci"c 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 con-sidered 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 "nancial 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

Europe50.07%

USA 26.80%

India7.8%

Japan3%

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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” (de"nition of the Brundtland Commission 198725). From this perspective, the economic, environmental and so-cial issues a'icting conventional shrimp farming may make it di&cult 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 su!cient to eat well every day and pay for the studies of my son. I still do the hard work in the "eld with the help of my son, and when the shrimp are a#ected by disease it is di!cult for the family to get enough food. $e vegetables in the gar-den are growing less because of the salinity of the area and the lack of grass makes it di!cult to feed the goats. $e salt also a#ects 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 admin-istrator. “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. $e 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 avail-able on the markets. $e rice price is a little higher as we cannot produce it in this area, but as the income is higher we can a#ord 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 "elds 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 "-nancial 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

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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 a$ord 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. #ese questions are especially important when exploring the Bangladeshi shrimp industry.

Creating ethical alternatives – the Organic Shrimp ProjectCodes of Conduct, certi"cation and education in good farming practices could provide ways of making aquacul-ture in Bangladesh more ethical and sustainable, and to bring together the di$erent 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. #e OSP is a signi"cant 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 shi!ed towards Europe, Africa and Latin America, WAB Trading International (Asia) Ltd took over responsibility and management of the project. #e goal of the project is to provide a sustainable alternative to wild "shing. Now more than 1800 farmers are certi"ed organic as per EU organic regulations, with this certi"cation 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 regula-tions, to minimise any adverse e$ects on the environment. #is 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 modi"ed organisms. It also demands an extensive culture technique with a low stocking density (max 15 larvae/m2). Organic shrimp farming does not al-low 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 certi"ed as well.

In the context of Bangladesh and the OSP, no arti"cial feed is used at all. #e shrimp nourish themselves on food naturally occurring in the ponds. #e OSP supports the farmers to prepare natural compost for the regular use in the shrimp farm to support the development of natural food. #is 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’ prof-its, while at the same time reducing the environmental impact. Moreover for this organic certi"cation, 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 regulat-ing the organic value-chain, from larvae to the processed product.

!e Organic Shrimp Project – from a supply-chain to a value-chain

#e OSP is organised with an Internal Control System (ICS), comprising of quality management procedures, training and inspection undertaken by 47 sta$ 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 "rst 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 farming2. Pre-stocking management; how to prepare a shrimp pond organically3. Stocking management, and compost and Bokashi (another type of compost) preparation4. 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. A!er the "rst approval of the farmer as “organic”, he receives his own OSP Identi"cation Card and can sell to the collection centres.

Box 2: !e day a “mad magician” came – the story of Md. Abdur RahimMr. 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. A!er "nishing 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 "rst shrimp farming was very pro"table and his "nancial 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 "eld (Mr.Aksya, the manager of the Organic Shrimp Project (OSP)). #e man told him, that he should prepare and treat his gher in an “organic” way, to increase pro"ts from his ponds. He should stop using fertilizer and chemicals and use organic compost instead. #is would reduce his cost of pond preparation, reduce the risk of diseases and increase the productivity of the pond. #e 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 "nally accepted to meet with Mr.Aksya. In this meeting the organic principles and rules were explained, and Mr. Rahim decided to trust the or-ganic 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 "rst organic shrimp farm-ers in Bangladesh. #ey reduced the cost of inputs and found organic alternatives, without using any chemicals. #e result was incredible: very big shrimp. #is 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, "ve years later, the "nancial 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 a$ord 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 "elds for their own consumption.

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#e OSP has a totally di$erent and shorter value-chain to conventional shrimp production. In the organic value-chain 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 convention-al 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’ identi"cation number. #e price is "xed for every harvest (new/full-moon), as calculated on the basis of the international organic shrimp price. #e shrimp is then transported in a truck directly to the nearby processing plant where it is processed the same day, and re-mains continuously at -18 C. #e shrimp farmer receives their payment within 2-3 days.

#e PL used by organic farmers are produced in an approved hatchery, clearly separated from conventional PL, as well as controlled and certi"ed. #e main di$erence is that no chemicals or medicines are used for the organic production; only natural inputs. #e price of the organic PL is higher because they take longer to grow. #e 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 scienti"c tests are car-ried 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’. #is 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 certi"cation and therefore also the OSP are steered by broad social criteria, ranging from worker con-tracts and working conditions, to gender justice and workers associations. As it is culturally quite di&cult at the moment to realize some principles like gender equality or working con-tracts in Bangladesh, the OSP tries to raise awareness on so-cial issues like workers’ rights and gender issues through addi-tional workshops and other activities. Naturland Certi"cation schemes also addresses mangrove reforestation, where shrimp projects need to reinstate 60% of the mangrove forest that ex-isted prior to deforestation. As the OSP in Bangladesh is situ-ated in areas where no mangrove forest was destroyed at least over the last 30 years, they are not a$ected by this regulation.

#e organic shrimp is directly shipped to Hamburg (Germany) where it arrives a!er spending four to six weeks at sea. Here it gets packed by a German packing company into the "nal packaging, designed for the di$erent su-permarkets where it will be sold, before being transported to these supermarkets. #e 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 sales26, 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 "lling 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.

ökologische  Lebensmittelwirtschaft  e.V

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Does everyone bene#t along the OSP value-chain?

Bene!ts for the farmers…

For the farmers, the main bene"ts 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, (veri"ed in Paul, B.G. and Vogl, C.R. (2012)). #ese 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.

“Before switching to organic we faced problems every month to care for the fam-ily, which has a total of 20 members. $e fruit and vegetables around the house, as well as the 5 bigha of land I lease for rice cultivation, are not su!cient and it was necessary to use the pro"ts 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. $e 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. $is consistency ensures that my family has enough to eat every day.”

…and for the communities…

Organic shrimp farming provides space for a new de"nition of community and opportunities for better com-munity development. #e 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.

”$e 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 activi-ties in order to have enough to eat. $ere were a lot of thieves. Now they have enough money and they can buy food and clothing. $e poor o%en get the pos-sibility to "sh 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 a#ected by the conventional shrimp nor by the organic shrimp, because my rice "eld is in a highland area and I cannot switch to shrimp production.”

…but, there are those le" out.

#ose actors most negatively a$ected by the OSP are largely those who were engaged in the conventional value-chain, including the middlemen working as foria, at the depots and the auctioning centre, as well as the collectors of wild fry and those providing chemicals and medicine as inputs to conventional farms. One of the middlemen stated that his pro"ts have decreased since the OSP started, from 200 taka (about 2 Euro) per day to only 20-30 taka per day, and he relies on another business he runs to survive. #e OSP does provide work for 250 people in the Internal Control System and collection centres, but they need comparatively fewer workers than the number engaged in the conventional shrimp chain. #is much noted, the OSP claims that jobs o$ered by them represent full-time employment and further education, which is an improvement over the less certain, casual labour in the conventional trade. #e wild fry collectors around the large Sundarban national park, who are mainly poor and landless people, are also likely to be negatively a$ected, 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

!e risk of disease

#e main negative aspect of (organic) shrimp farming mentioned by all farmers is the risk of disease. #is risk is gen-erally considered as lower if the quality of the PL and the water is high, and as this is normally the case in organic pro-duction, the risk for diseases is a little lower compared to conventional production. But there are still cases of disease which greatly a$ect the income of the farmers. More research on how to avoid disease outbreaks, together with train-ing for the farmers is necessary. One possibility could be the use of probiotics (like Lactobacillus), which are bene"-cial bacteria that can increase the soil, water and feed quality. Researchers at Khulna University are investigating this.

!e collection centre

#e organic shrimp farmers were overall satis"ed with their switch to organic, but noted some areas for improve-ment in the value-chain. #ey 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 su&cient capacity to process the shrimp the same day. #is forces farmers to sell some of their shrimp on the conventional market, where the middlemen o!en o$er a lower price out of spite that the organic farmers no longer rely on them. #e 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 di&culties for farmers. Finally, the farmers would like to explore the possibility of selling the other "sh species that grow in their ponds to the OSP collection centre.

!e price farmers receive for organic shrimp

Some organic farmers are dissatis"ed with the price o$ered for organic shrimp. #ey complain that the price they receive for their high quality, environmentally friendly product is not necessarily higher, and sometimes even lower than the conventional shrimp market price. However, all farmers I spoke with agreed that they will continue selling to the collection centre, because of the good infrastructure and reliability of payments. #e question of price is an important one, with the OSP not certi"ed fair trade and not (yet) ful"lling the criteria for becoming fair trade certi"ed. #e price at the moment is "xed every harvest according to market prices. An alternative could be a ‘fair’ bargaining of the price with the representative of each area and the project management, or a price calculation that includes a ‘fair trade’ premium. Farmers complained that the low price did not allow them to fully realise the organic concept, which demands signi"cant investment in things like ‘dike greening’. In comparison with the price the con-sumer pay for the organic shrimp, the farmer gets approx. 25% as an income27. In di$erent studies analysing the in-come in comparison to the "nal selling price of other organically produced species, the same relation can be shown.

!e greening of the dikes

As the OSP is relatively new, there remain some manage-ment 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 vegeta-bles 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 green-ing dikes. #e greenery must be able to cope with salt water and protect the dikes. #e fruits of this research will be passed on to the OSP farmers, but also to other communities and the government of Bangladesh. #e aim is to stabilize not only the dikes on the farms, but also the embankments; protecting land and people from

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%ooding and other natural hazards. #is 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 contaminants28. #is is why the OSP implements farm clusters. #e 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 certi"cation system and farmers are punished or excluded from the project in case of fraud. But this system demands signi"cant monitoring, with high documenta-tion and sta$ and resource costs, as well as the cost of independent third party certi"cation. #is 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 certi"cation does also include social crite-ria such as gender equality and working contracts, the project has some di&culties in realising these criteria. #e main reason is cultural. How can one convince farmers to give equal pay-ment to female workers, when they are culturally accustomed to paying them less? How can one persuade them to make con-tracts with their daily workers, if they cannot read and without money have no access to the courts? #ese issues demand a lot of time, patience and education. #e project started by initi-ating training to explain these important subjects to farmers, but it will take a long time to ensure the realization of these social criteria. #e Naturland Certi"cation does have certain requirements to demonstrate an e$ort 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 di&cult to establish access to supermarkets, as Bangladesh in general and particularly the shrimp industry, has had a bad image concerning cor-ruption, 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 mar-ket is especially focused on the price and there is very little consideration for ethical values when German consum-ers are at the checkout. Even though the organic market in Germany is signi"cant 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 o$ered and they are criticised for ful"lling only the most basic organic requirements. #e 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 di&cult to convince consumers that organic, extensive shrimp production can present a sustainable alternative to the monoculture rice production and the over"shed 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. #e problem is that this will also necessitate greater coordination and bureaucracy as well as "nancial 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.

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!e future for Bangladeshi shrimpAmongst the public controversy around conventional Bangladeshi shrimp are some arguments that are well justi"ed, while others not well grounded or are very one-sided. Conventional shrimp production brings, on the one hand, economic pro"ts for the farmers and foreign currency to Bangladesh, while on the other hand there are some neg-ative 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 pro"table for shrimp aqua-culture. In these increasingly saline lowland soils, agriculture like rice farming is at the moment not productively possible. #erefore 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.

#e 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. #e Organic Shrimp Project is still in its early stages and may not yet do enough to be called ful-ly 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, tak-ing into account a number of broad considerations. #ese 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. #anks must also go to the wider consortium that contributed to this "nal 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