Southeast and South Asian shrimp farming produces the majority of global shrimp supply in conditions involving high disease rates, overcrowding, and poor slaughter welfare.
Intensive Asian shrimp farming operates under welfare conditions that are among the least regulated in global food production. Extreme stocking densities create physiological stress and disease pressure that drives massive mortality events and reliance on antibiotic treatments. The combination of chronic crowding stress and unstunned ice slurry killing at harvest means that farmed shrimp experience welfare harm across their entire life cycle. The global appetite for cheap shrimp makes meaningful reform difficult without consumer and retailer-driven supply chain pressure. The growing evidence for shrimp sentience — their capacity to experience pain and stress — strengthens the moral case for treating welfare standards in shrimp farming as urgent rather than speculative.