Shrimp Culture in Thailand: Environmental Impacts and Social Responses

Abstract

Black tiger shrimp (Penaeus monodon) is a major aquaculture commodity among Southeast Asian producers and remains a popular food export worldwide. Food brokers in Japan and the United States purchase huge quantities of these farmed shrimp and return significant foreign exchange earnings to developing nations like Thailand, a major producer and exporter since the early 1990s. However, coastal areas cannot sustain intensive shrimp farm production and local growers often end up in debt. Can the needs of farm communities around the world be suitably met when they join into a corporate-managed and export-oriented food system? What are the sustainable benefits and eventual costs to susceptible localities? The shrimp industry in Thailand reveals the difficult terrain to cross and powerful obstacles to overcome if authentic sustainable development is to be realized.