The True Cost of Shrimp

In the $13 billion seafood processing industry, workers pay the price for consumer affordability. This report, from the Solidarity Center’s ‘Degradation of Work’ series, uncovers pervasive worker and human rights abuses in the shrimp processing industry in Thailand and Bangladesh, such as low-wage sweatshop conditions, use of child and forced labor, and global supply chains that drive wages down and hide the exploitation of workers.

Thailand is the world’s shrimp industry leader and the No. 1 source of shrimp for the U.S., having exported $1.3 billion worth to the U.S. in 2006. Fast-rising newcomer Bangladesh exported $200 million to rank 9th on a list of U.S. sources.

Solidarity Center found that the following chains received shrimp from plants with substandard labor practices:

• Costco
• Cub Foods
• Giant
• Giant Eagle
• Harris Teeter
• IGA
• Tops Markets
• Trader Joe’s
• Wal-Mart

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