Planet Tracker report……………..good luck with trying to excite targeted listed companies (small fry in shrimp)…………also we have seen the mangrove issue come around once every ten years – new cohort of willing graduates.

Some interesting key takeaways but overall flawed. Exaggerated (fake, miss targeted, sensational, etc) reporting.  

Counter arguments could be that this was written out of an office in London. Just imagine the footprint in England. Probably by people who have the luxury of living and benefiting from exploitation already. Where are all the forests that used to cover the UK? Cut down to make houses and ships to rule the rest of the world – as fuel.

Also one must surely put in the society job creation aspect to counter balance –  millions of people globally raised out of poverty with shrimp farming.  

Simple if you have a problem with shrimp aquaculture you vote with your wallet – just don’t buy. Or buy certified or from a trusted brand. Local supermarket in developed country should be good enough 🙂

Concern on inflation ($63bn is way silly number) with this one:

Planet Tracker has identified 27 publicly listed companies involved in farmed shrimp
with a combined market capitalisation of $102 billion, of which $63 billion is held by
external investors. Their farmed shrimp segment gross profit and net profit margins
are unable to be assessed due to very low transparency on shrimp-related revenues
and costs.

Some listed companies are itsy bitsy players in shrimp farming – compared to their portfolios. This report bundles all businesses together.   

Some companies shown are not even in farmed shrimp production. Take High Liner – where are their owned operations? Some companies are Japanese shrimp fishing companies not deeply involved in the farmed shrimp sector. Many traders and secondary processors. So no farmed shrimp information relative to any LCA’s. 

Why not better show the volume of shrimp these 27 companies say they produce and what portion this is of their overall business. Guaranteed added up they are still minority players in industry. 

Profits assessed on related revenues and costs is not of importance if one is looking at a resource monitoring exercise – which this report supposedly is. But including it is because trying to hook the big fish………this is shrimp.

And this one….

Historical and future mangrove deforestation is a material risk for the farmed shrimp
industry – incorporating land use change into shrimp life cycle assessments places
shrimp ahead of beef for GHG emissions on a per kilogram of production basis.

Same story for past decades. It may be an issue for specific players out of SE Asia but does not stand up for many companies in the farmed shrimp industry. 

Would be interesting to see what Planet Tracker has done reporting shrimp wise in the Western Hemisphere?