With growing stakeholder concerns regarding the risk of slavery in the Thai farmed prawn industry, Impactt worked with a group of retailers to investigate labour standards issues. We researched what other organisations were doing in the field, mapped a retail supply chain, gathered insights on working conditions and explored opportunities for sustainable improvements.
In particular Impactt sought key stakeholders’ views through a mix of structured questionnaires, focus groups and informal interviews. We gathered insights on the flows of money and goods as well as the challenges and benefits for each actor involved. We also visited multiple farms to speak to both Thai and migrant workers, in order to understand worker needs and identify human rights risks. This enabled us to make recommendations on solving certain issues at site level by strengthening management systems throughout the supply chain, and addressing systemic issues via a collaborative industry response.
Our work formed the basis of wider discussions among brands and the Thai government on how to protect workers. It also laid the foundation for multi-stakeholder dialogues convened by groups such as the Ethical Trading Initiative, focusing on both slavery in prawn farms and ships.
