From Gujarat’s Farms to Forks in the West: Tracing the Shrimp Global Commodity Chain

Centre for Labour Research and Action (CLRA), with support from RLS South Asia, has published a study tracing the global commodity chain of farmed shrimp from production sites in Surat, South Gujarat, to consumer markets in Europe, the US and East Asia.

India is the world's second-largest shrimp exporter, with shrimp accounting for around 70 per cent of total seafood export earnings. Gujarat, with a 2,300-kilometre coastline, is a significant and growing production region, yet less examined than Andhra Pradesh, which dominates national output. Using a global commodity chain framework, the study maps the full supply chain — from broodstock centres and hatcheries through farms, commission agents and processors to foreign importers, distributors and retailers — and examines how profits, risks and responsibilities are distributed across it.

The study finds that while farms appear fragmented, production in Gujarat is highly consolidated, with the top ten farmer groups controlling 80–90 per cent of output. Processing and export are dominated by a small number of vertically integrated firms. International buyers, primarily in the Global North, exercise significant influence over prices, quality standards and delivery timelines, while risks related to disease, price volatility and crop failure are largely borne by farmers and workers. Existing certification and traceability frameworks focus on food safety and environmental parameters, and largely exclude farm-level labour conditions from scrutiny.

The study also documents the ecological consequences of shrimp farming expansion in coastal Gujarat, including groundwater salinisation, mangrove loss and the obstruction of natural drainage systems.