28 MARCH 2013 • WORLD AQUACULTURE • WWW.WAS.ORG An Organic Future for Bangladeshi Shrimp? Loni Hensler1 and Scott Bremer In recent years, the farmed shrimp sector has become increasingly important for Bangladesh, with 97% of production exported (Kruijssen et al. 2012). Shrimp represents the country’s second largest export after garments, contributing about 4% to GDP (Haque et al. 2012) and employing approximately 1.2 million people for production, processing, and marketing (Paul and Vogl 2012). Including family members, about 4.8 million Bangladeshi people are directly dependent on this sector for their livelihood. However, while the Bangladeshi shrimp sector continues to grow, it is becoming controversial. Some argue in favor of shrimp farming, asserting that it produces nutritious food, releases the pressure on overfished oceans and meat production, and contributes to the income of poor farmers and workers with few other possibilities to improve their difficult situation. Others warn that luxury shrimp products come at a high social and environmental cost to Bangladesh, with a vocal group of non-governmental organizations calling for a boycott of Bangladeshi shrimp. In this article we analyze the potential of the cultured shrimp sector to improve livelihoods in Bangladesh, the country with the greatest population density in the world, one of the most threatened by climate change, and with a large number of people below the poverty line (40 percent according to 2010 UN data). We also explore what can be done to address the social and environmental problems associated with the sector and transform it into one that is more ethical and sustainable. This study is steered by an ongoing European research project entitled ‘Sustaining Ethical Aquaculture Trade’ (SEAT, www.seatglobal. eu), which found that many Bangladeshi people engaged in shrimp production (and indeed people from surrounding FIGURE 1. Early morning shrimp harvest near Kaligonj.
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