From Sea to Shrimp Processing Factories in Bangladesh

Abstract

Shrimp aquaculture in Bangladesh linking the European Union, the USA, and Japan exhibits several characteristics of a buyer-driven global commodity chain (GCC). The study shows that, along with the effects of local conditions, buyers’ pressures transmitted through the GCC affect gender and employment relations in the lower segments of the chain. It has been found that the feminisation of the workforce in aquaculture is accompanied by the marginality of females, who receive lower wages and social prestige than their male counterparts, and who are mostly concentrated at the beginning and end of the local supply chain, with very limited access to other important nodes of the GCC. In addition to being flexible (part-time, temporary, casual), much of the employment in Bangladesh shrimp aquaculture is also informal, without an employment contract or its associated rights. As there is an apparent gap between labour standards in private regulatory regimes and actual labour practices in the production and processing segments of the chain, the pressing question concerns how the structure of the commodity chain can allow companies to maintain the flexibility and low labour costs required for international competitiveness while ensuring more equitable and empowering labour market outcomes for workers.