‘So much pain’: India’s shrimp farmers reeling from U.S. tariffs

The dozen men joked and whistled as they waded into the water of a shrimp pond in India's southeastern coastal state of Andhra Pradesh, pulling a large net behind them as they tried to catch as many shrimp as possible.

The light-hearted atmosphere masked deep concern over the 50 per cent tariffs the United States slapped on Indian exports in August that have heavily damaged India's frozen shrimp industry.

"Everyone is desperate," said Bhaskar Kokkiligadda, one of the daily workers who rotates to different shrimp farms in the area near Pedapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, which sits surrounded by the Godavari River that flows into the nearby Bay of Bengal.

Prior to the tariffs being implemented, the U.S. was India's largest client for shrimp exports, taking slightly more than 40 per cent of the market. That totalled more than $2.5 billion US ($3.5 billion Cdn) in sales in the 2023-24 fiscal year, according to India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry.

Now, shrimp is being harvested more sporadically and much of what's hauled in is put on ice and into storage containers, with shipments to the U.S. mostly ground to a halt.

Kokkiligadda said some of the workers who rely on shrimp harvesting were volunteering to take wage cuts and others were turning up to jobs even though they knew they weren't needed in the hopes they could make a few extra rupees.

"Before I had 20 days of work [a month]. Now it's down to only 10 days," he said. "I don't know how I'm managing."

India's shrimp industry is responsible for more than one million jobs at export companies, shrimp processing plants and hundreds of small-scale farms.

The pain is particularly acute in Andhra Pradesh, where 75 to 85 per cent of India's shrimp is produced, much of which used to go straight onto shipping containers destined for the United States, according to industry data.

Tariffs doubled

The initial tariff on Indian exports was set at 25 per cent, but was later doubled to 50 per cent by U.S. President Donald Trump as punishment for India's purchases of Russian crude oil.

That's given a competitive edge to India's main international rival for shrimp exports, Ecuador, which is dealing with a 15 per cent tariff.

"We were already suffering with [the 25 per cent duty]," said Praveen Sabbineni, who employs several hundred workers at three farms in Andhra Pradesh.

He said the price he gets for his shrimp is down nearly 40 per cent and that's forcing many farmers to seriously consider abandoning shrimp farming altogether. Others are working to develop other export markets, but that process could take months.

"We're feeling so much pain."

'Very difficult times'

It's worse for the vast majority of India's shrimp farmers who have tiny plots of land.

"These are very difficult times," Edukal Basani, a shrimp farmer who owns one pond that sits on 0.4 hectares of land, told CBC News.

He recently harvested 200 kilograms of shrimp but he couldn't find anyone to sell it to, with the hefty U.S. tariff in place.

"It got wasted," Basani, 45, said. "It was very depressing. I didn't want to throw it out."

WATCH | American tariffs leave Indian shrimp farmers struggling:

Trump's tariffs crushing India's frozen shrimp industry

October 5

Duration2:37

The U.S. was India's top export market for shrimp, but 50 per cent export tariffs brought in by the Trump administration have seriously hurt the industry. Some farmers have faced price cuts of almost 40 per cent on their catch, and the livelihoods of exporters and workers are on the line.

Even with the state government offering an electricity subsidy for shrimp farmers in an attempt to offset the sting of the new tariffs, Basani is finding it hard to make ends meet.

"I have loans to repay, and I can't afford my power bills."

Basani, who said he's toying with the idea of leaving shrimp farming behind, had to pull his son out of college because he can't afford the tuition and he needed more help on the farm.

Few other job options

Many of the jobs dependent on a robust shrimp industry in India are at more than 300 processing plants, where it's mostly women who spend hours peeling and deveining shrimp.

It's often the most reliable work available to women with few other options, even if the industry has been plagued by reports from rights groups of workers being poorly paid, exploited and forced to work extra hours.

"My life depends on these wages," said Lalitha Rajeshwari, 45, who says she has an alcoholic husband who doesn't give her any money for household expenses.

She and the other women make between $6 and $9 Cdn a day.

Looking for a trade deal

Indian officials are anxious to secure a trade deal with the U.S. to help offset the tariffs, but there are several key sticking points.

Trump has railed against India's "obnoxious" protectionist trade barriers, but New Delhi insists it won't give in on its red lines or open up its agriculture or dairy sectors. Talks recently restarted after they were paused for a few weeks in late August.

"We are all worried" about the effect of the tariffs, Radhika Enti, 24, told CBC News.

She said her family is conservative and would only let her work at the plant, which is close to her home and hires only women to process the catch.

"If this unit shuts down, how can we survive? Who will take care of our children?" the young mother said, without pausing her work peeling shrimp after shrimp.

"We can't do anything else."