SHRIMP WELFARE PROJECT

They have made agreements to purchase electrical stunners for some producers, who commit to stun a minimum of ~100,000,000 shrimps per year. To date, this has resulted in written commitments, to the effect of approximately 1 billion shrimps per year.

• MoU with MER Seafood: Collaboration to ensure the welfare of shrimps and the sustainability within MER Seafood’s farms in Honduras. Commitments include limits to stocking densities, maintaining water quality within certain parameters, not using eyestalk ablation and ensuring that slaughter methods are as humane as possible. SWP has provided MER Seafood with an electrical stunning equipment developed by the Norwegian company, Optimar, with whom SWP has also entered into an agreement to support the adoption of electrical stunning technology. This affects 1,500 - 2,300 tonnes of Litopenaeus vannamei shrimps per year, i.e. on average 125 million shrimps per year.

• Seajoy: Collaboration to ensure the welfare of shrimps in Seajoy’s farms. Commitments include limits to stocking densities, not using eyestalk ablation and ensuring that slaughter methods are as humane as possible. SWP has committed to providing electrical stunning equipment to Seajoy. This will affect more than 6,000 metric tonnes of Litopenaeus vannamei shrimps per year, i.e. on average 400 million shrimps per year.

• Sofina and their producer Taika: Collaboration to ensure the welfare of shrimps within Taika’s farms in Vietnam. Taika's commitments include limits to stocking densities, a ban on eyestalk ablation in shrimps destined for Young's, and ensuring that slaughter methods are as humane as possible. SWP will support Taika by providing electrical stunning equipment. This will affect over 4,000 metric tonnes of Litopenaeus vannamei shrimps per year, i.e. on average 270 million shrimps per year. Sofina will also prioritise the purchase and sale of stunned shrimps. 

• Further commitments which have not yet been publicly announced.

SWP has also launched Sustainable Shrimp Farmers of India (SSFI). SSFI is a platform and community for like-minded shrimp farmers. It provides a space for knowledge sharing and collaboration. It also offers services such as water quality checks, farm visits by technicians, and online consultations through a WhatsApp-based system. So far, SSFI has impacted around 2,680,000 shrimps with 360,000 shrimps saved (through reduced stocking densities) and 2,320,000 helped (through welfare improvements).