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Fisherman in mangrove forest
About the Actors
COOP
COOP Sweden is one of the largest grocery
store chains in Sweden. It has taken an active role in promoting what they
wrongly call “organic” scampi and was the first to sell the
Naturland-certified tropical shrimps in Europe. The marketing of COOP has
been full of false information. They have mostly responded to consumer protests
and NGO critique by having the information changed on the packages numerous
times. However, they still spread false information to consumers and to
their stores. That COOP Sweden has been such an active player in this issue
is sad considering that they used to do quite good work in introducing more
organic and fair-trade products to the market. COOP grocery chains in other
European countries have also begun to promote’organic’ shrimp.
However, it is not certain how much they really know about the fact that
COOP Sweden has been using false marketing. For more information on what
COOP Sweden has said, see
Critical Analysis of Certified Organic Shrimp Aquaculture in Sidoarjo.
Of the consumer cooperatives affiliated to COOP Sweden, two of the largest
have already said that they want to pull this product away from store shelves.
However, COOP Sweden continues to ignore them.
Naturland
Naturland is a German certifier of organic agriculture that has certified
shrimp aquaculture in Indonesia and Ecuador, and is working to do the same
in Vietnam, Bangladesh, and other countries. They have not proved to be
very serious and transparent in this certification. Moreover, they are ignoring
the legislation in both Indonesia and Ecuador. For more information on the
certification carried out by Naturland see Critical
Analysis of Certified Organic Shrimp Aquaculture in Sidoarjo and
Eco-Labeling of Shrimp
Farming in Ecuador. The Naturland answer to the Indonesian report
can be read here and the response
of the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation can be found here.
IFOAM
The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements, IFOAM, is
the international umbrella organisation for organic certification organisations.
The name and label of IFOAM has wrongly been used by COOP and Naturland
in the marketing of their shrimp. IFOAM has recently developed criteria/standards
for aquaculture. However, these criteria are best suited to another type
of aquaculture (i.e. salmon). There is a risk that it may be used to legitimise
certification of tiger-prawns as IFOAM seems to be in the process of looking
into this product. One of the main drivers behind this is Naturland. The
former president of IFOAM has also worked as a consultant for the Japanese
company working with Naturland on shrimp certification while IFOAM was developing
its aquaculture criteria.
Red Manglar
Red Manglar is a network of Latin-American organisations working to preserve
the mangrove forest and support local communities in areas affected by shrimp-aquaculture.
They have called the certification of shrimp-farming an acute threat and
as a process which effectively “Legitimises the illegal”. You
can find their statement concerning certification here.
Swedish Society for Nature Conservation
The Swedish Society for Nature Conservation is one of the biggest environmental
organisations in Europe with 165.000 members in 270 local branches all over
Sweden. SSNC started eco-labelling in 1987 with the Good Environmental Choice
label. Thousands of products and services have been labeled, including transport
and electricity, grocery stores etc. SSNC, visited Naturland’s certified
shrimp-ponds in both Indonesia and Ecuador. Their research comprises, among
other things, over a month of study on the ground in Indonesia, the contracting
of a University researcher and work with partner organisations in Ecuador.
This can be compared with COOP Sweden, which spent on some rare occasions
only a few days in the area being shown around by a Japanese company. The
conclusion of SSNC is that the marketing of this product has meant that
COOP Sweden has fooled Swedish consumers and that the sales have to stop.
Global Aquaculture Alliance
The Global Aquaculture Alliance is the response of some of the biggest actors
within the shrimp industry to counter their bad reputation. Among the founders
are corporations such as Monsanto and Cargill. They have created very weak
criteria for what they call organic aquaculture, as well as spreading arguments
claiming that the shrimp industry barely harms the environment. For more
information, see the Mangrove
Action Project's press release on the marketing of Global Aquaculture
Alliance shrimps in Wal-Mart.
The Scampi Page
You can read about us who are doing this page here.
You
Yes, you are also one of the actors. The problems caused by shrimp-aquaculture
wouldn't exist if the richer part of the world didn’t insist on buying
tiger-prawns and giant-shrimp. Thus by not partaking in this industry and
spreading the word about the atrocities it causes you can begin to change
things!. Read more on how here.
Listed above are only the actors mentioned on scampi.nu. There are various other organisations working on the issue such as Environmental Justice Foundation and Mangrove Action Project.
The most important actors are, however, the local communities
affected by the devastation of shrimp aquaculture.
