A worker peels shrimp in a tin-roofed processing shed in the hamlet of the Tallarevu, in Kakinada district, in the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, Sunday, Feb. 11, 2024. Dr. Sushmitha Meda, a dermatologist at a nearby government hospital in the city of Kakinada, said she treats four to five shrimp peelers every day for frostbite and infection. It’s a preventable problem, she said. Cotton gloves covered with latex gloves can protect peelers’ hands, but few can afford a $3 box of gloves.
Signs for shrimp hatcheries are displayed on a roadside in Uppada, Kakinada district, Andhra Pradesh, India, Friday, Feb. 9, 2024. An investigation released Wednesday, March 20, 2024, by the Chicago-based Corporate Accountability Lab, a human rights legal group, that found workers face “dangerous and abusive conditions.”
Harvest of the Sea shrimp packets are displayed on a counter at a Harvest of the Sea exhibit booth at the North American Seafood Expo, Monday, March 11, 2024, in Boston. Shrimp pulled from ponds alongside a busy highway in India were loaded into Wellcome KingWhite branded trucks. In the past year, Wellcome KingWhite has exported shrimp to several U.S. companies including Harvest of the Sea.
AP journalists obtained access to shrimp hatcheries, growing ponds, peeling sheds and warehouses, and interviewed workers, supervisors and union organizers. From India, the shrimp travels by the ton, frozen in shipping containers, to the U.S., more than 8,000 miles away. It is nearly impossible to tell where a specific shrimp ends up, and whether a U.S.-bound shipment has a connection to abusive labor practices. And Indian shrimp is regularly sold in major U.S. stores such as Walmart, Target and Sam’s Club and supermarkets like Kroger and Safeway.
Before ending a brief interview, Sivaraman said India is committed to providing quality shrimp to U.S. buyers. He refused to answer questions about labor and environmental problems.Erugula Baby, 51, widowed and destitute, sold her gold jewelry — her only savings — and then took out loan after loan in her rural Indian village as her son lay dying of liver disease. Her debt topped $8,500 and her son didn’t survive.
“It’s not enough for our living,” she said, breaking into tears. Rarely does she get a day off, she said. It’s a preventable problem, she said. Cotton gloves covered with latex gloves can protect peelers’ hands, but few can afford a $3 box of gloves. Nekkanti, however, says all its shrimp is processed in a handful of massive company-owned processing facilities approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. A marketing video produced by Nekkanti, which is projecting $150 million in revenues this year, shows shrimp peelers in a spotless room, with shiny tables, and workers wearing gloves, head coverings, face masks, rubber boots and waterproof aprons.
Importers that responded to requests for comment about possible labor abuses said they would investigate, with some suspending business in the meantime. Jonnalagaruvu village vice president Koyya Sampath Rao initially helped build the massive facility, ignoring warnings from environmentalists. Sysco, the nation’s largest food distributor, has imported in the past from both Nekkanti and Wellcome. A spokesperson said they stopped doing business with Wellcome in 2022 after the Indian firm “refused to allow us to conduct a required social responsibility audit in their facility.” Wellcome did not respond to requests for comment.
Over the next two decades, the use of inexpensive shrimp-farming technologies soared in Asia, and imports flooded the market. Today in the U.S., where more than 5 pounds of shrimp per person is eaten per year, consumers expect all-you-can-eat shrimp buffets and $10 frozen bags at their markets. “The many small, family-owned commercial shrimping businesses in Louisiana are facing an unprecedented risk of collapse due to the devastating impacts that large volumes of imported shrimp are having on domestic shrimp dockside prices,” said then-Gov. John Bel Edwards last fall.
Last year, the FDA refused entry of 51 shrimp shipments citing antibiotics; 37 of those were shrimp exported from India. The National Fisheries Institute, America’s largest seafood trade association, works with seafood importers to improve working and environmental conditions in shrimp farming.
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