Inside the supply chain: What’s new for shrimp welfare

Greetings from Shrimp Welfare Project!

🎟️ Backstage passes out — you’ve got a VIP ticket inside the shrimp supply chain.

🎤 It’s almost summer concert season, and we’re skipping general admission to give you a glimpse behind the curtain, to see where shrimp welfare progress actually gets made.

The industry’s transition to higher-welfare and humane slaughter doesn’t happen in one big, flashy headline. It happens throughout a series of unglamorous (but wildly important) moments: sourcing decisions, supplier conversations, retailer policies, and the practical steps that turn commitments into reality.

And Shrimp Welfare Project is there every step of the way. This month, we’re giving you an inside look: read more about our corporate engagement in Seafood Source, the new teammates broadening our impact, and our takeaways from Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona.

🎵 Here’s your all-access wristband. Let’s go behind-the-scenes!

See you next month!

Robin | Communications Director

Major news: All 11 of the UK’s major supermarkets have now committed to shrimp welfare! 

🔬 This comes as a new preprint from the University of Stirling supports electrical stunning for the humane slaughter of whiteleg shrimp. 

And as humane slaughter continues to become the expectation for consumers globally, Seafood Source published an article on Shrimp Welfare Project and our Humane Slaughter Initiative, which recently signed its 30th MOU (memorandum of understanding) to provide shrimp producers with free electrical stunners, technical assistance, and supply chain consulting.

Ismael Wong, CEO of Seajoy Group, one of Central America's largest shrimp companies, spoke about how they deployed their first electrical stunner in 2023 and saw “an immediate reduction in stress to the shrimp at harvest, resulting in improved texture, fewer defects, and improved shelf life.”

“Humane slaughter at harvest is one of the most critical stages and one where we can make a big difference to quality…
Our customers also noticed a difference and now differentiate our product from others, declaring to consumers that a responsible slaughter method is used.”

— Seajoy CEO Ismael Wong

Seajoy has signed 3 MOUs with Shrimp Welfare Project: two stunners are in operation at the company’s conventional farms, and a third is being delivered for use on their certified organic shrimp farm. 

Much like flowers in springtime, our team is growing. Like, really growing! So much so that we’ve expanded our staff by ~60% over the past two months, and we couldn’t be more excited about where that capacity is taking us!

Rather than share each new staff member’s full bio (we’d run out of newsletter), we want to spotlight the new workstreams this growth is unlocking: 

• To explore innovative paths for impact, we’ve brought on a Program Development Lead who will be overseeing a new team of Scoping Leads.

• Two Wild-Caught Scoping Leads — one focused on large-scale industrial fisheries, the other looking into small-scale fisheries and the shrimp paste industry — are researching ways we could improve the welfare of trillions of animals.

• Our China Scoping Lead is exploring intervention opportunities in China, which is both the world’s largest shrimp-producing and shrimp-consuming country.

• To support the Humane Slaughter Initiative, we’ve added Technical Field Coordinators in Asia and Latin America, expanding our on-the-ground presence in these important regions.

🦐 We’re thrilled to have everyone on board, and we look forward to sharing more as their work gets underway. 

Chief Programmes Officer, Krzysztof Wojtas, and Director of Strategic Industry Partnerships, Jessica Gámez, met with key industry partners at Seafood Expo Global in Barcelona, Spain, April 21 → April 23.

This is one of the largest seafood trade shows in the world, and an opportunity to sit down with producers, suppliers, retailers, and certification bodies from across the global supply chain. 

Our Humane Slaughter Initiative installed several new stunners across Southeast Asia, India, and Latin America. 

In April, the team successfully commissioned an Ace Aquatec stunner for a major Vietnamese shrimp producer. This is the first Ace Aquatec stunner in Vietnam. 

This month, we look forward to attending:

• AVA Summit Canada, Toronto (May 21 → May 24)

• EA Global, London (May 29 → May 31)

If you want to learn more about shrimp welfare and the shrimp farming industry:

• Vietnamese trade press covers shrimp welfare: The Shrimp Farmer magazine recently featured two articles about shrimp welfare: one piece about the increasing demand from European retailers for humane slaughter in their supply chains (page 19), and an article about our MOU with Trangs Group, Trang Corporation, and Dary Foods (page 33) ➜  Read the issue (in Vietnamese)

• Fork The System, Episode 12 with Kari Snorek, Director of Operations: In this insightful conversation, Kari explains her path to working at Shrimp Welfare Project and shares her thoughts on why shrimp welfare matters, how our initiatives improve the lives of billions of shrimps, and what others can do to make an impact ➜ Listen wherever you get your podcasts

• Webinar on Farm-Level Shrimp Welfare Study: Join Urja Thakrar (Royal Veterinary College) on May 19 for a closer look at how shrimp welfare science, certification systems, and industry implementation can work together to raise standards across seafood supply chains ➜ Register for the talk

• Researchers in Japan target early-life bottlenecks in aquaculture: A new automated system using light, water flow, and real-time sensors could reduce stress and mortality in young shrimp and other aquatic animals ➜ Read the research here

• Fish Welfare in Nigeria: A recent study on Nigerian smallholder aquaculture highlights that meaningful aquatic animal welfare progress depends on practical tools, training, and tailored, context-specific solutions ➜ Read the study

Opportunities in aquatic animal welfare:

• Co-Executive Director - Aquatic Animal Policy Org

• Welfare Assessment Manager (on-site in Andhra Pradesh, India) - Fish Welfare Initiative

• International Aquaculture Law & Policy Symposium - The Center for Animal Law Studies, in collaboration with Aquatic Life Institute and the Multispecies Collective