AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Americans seem to really like their shrimp.
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UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Ultimate endless shrimp is here with a limited time...
RASCOE: Remember the endless offer that caused Red Lobster to lose $11 million in one year? Well, much of the shrimp in the U.S. - about 2 of every 5 pounds - used to come from one place, India. But in August, President Trump slapped 25% tariffs on many Indian industries. Then he doubled it as punishment for buying Russian oil. So we sent NPR's Diaa Hadid to the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, where shrimp exports are an economic backbone.
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DIAA HADID, BYLINE: A woman heads home after a day looking for work in a coastal town of Andhra Pradesh.
SITA: (Speaking Telugu).
HADID: Sita used to make about $120 a month, peeling and packing shrimp all day in a processing plant, but she hasn't had a shift in weeks.
SITA: (Speaking Telugu).
HADID: Sita's a single mother. It's all on her. For now she's pulled her two teenage boys out of school. She's worried about the rent, worried about the $100 loan she took out last month to cover expenses.
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HADID: Sita's about one of a dozen women who tell NPR they haven't had a shift in weeks or they've had their hours curtailed. Sita asks that NPR only use her first name. She's worried about angering her boss and losing her job for good. The shrimp industry usually employs over a million people...
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: ...From the fishmongers who sell their catch at the port to the fishwives who auction off pungent mounds of dried shrimp.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Non-English language spoken).
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Ah.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Ah.
HADID: But the biggest slice of the industry is farmed, peeled and frozen shrimp. Much of it shipped to America or was shipped to America.
PAWAN KUMAR GUNTURU: All the shipments have come to a halt.
HADID: Pawan Kumar Gunturu runs a major shrimp processing and export company. He also heads India's Seafood Exporters Association, the central body for seafood exporters throughout India. He says, tariffs have priced them out of the American market. Now they're keeping shrimp once meant for the U.S. in storage while they look for new markets. He says it just needs time.
GUNTURU: Two months, three months, six months - that's fine.
HADID: But another industry leader says, most folks don't have the resources to wait it out. Their margins are so thin.
ARJILLI DASU: Farmer, they're getting mostly 5%. Trader, 5%. Exporters, also 5%.
HADID: Arjilli Dasu leads a federation of Indian fishery groups. He says he's already seeing impacts down the line. Traders and exporters aren't buying wholesale shrimp from farmers.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: And that's why shrimp farmer Rajakrishnan Raju thinks this is his last harvest.
RAJAKRISHNAN RAJU: Very, very, very bad.
HADID: For two decades, Raju's raised premium shrimp in saltwater ponds.
RAJU: Yearly one crop.
HADID: Birds try nab a few. A worker shoos them away.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #4: (Non-English language spoken).
HADID: Raju says he's likely to lose thousands of dollars this year.
RAJU: Destroy.
HADID: Economist Shoumitro Chatterjee says this may be the fate of all sectors hit by Trump's tariffs.
SHOUMITRO CHATTERJEE: There is no way that industry can take a 50% tariff. At that point, you are completely thrown out of the U.S. market.
HADID: Chatterjee is an assistant professor of international economics at Johns Hopkins University, and he says the industries most at risk from Trump's tariffs...
CHATTERJEE: Apparel, footwear, leather, textile, even food processing.
HADID: ...Are all labor intensive. They offer rare reliable work, even if it's badly paid. The tariffs may be ruinous in India, and yet...
DEBORAH LONG: The tariffs are providing immediate relief for the U.S. shrimp industry.
HADID: Deborah Long is from the Southern Shrimp Alliance, based in Florida. She says, American shrimpers have been devastated by foreign competitors who have been allowed...
LONG: To use practices that are not allowed here in the United States and allow them to reduce costs.
HADID: Like Indian producers who pay peanuts and who use antibiotics to raise more shrimp faster. Antibiotics use is largely restricted in the U.S. Long says the Alliance wants trade deals that enforce the same rules for everyone. But another expert says, that isn't going to solve this problem.
KATRINA NAKAMURA: There are big coastlines in the United States, and yet 96% of the seafood is imported. There's reasons for that.
HADID: Katrina Nakamura is from the Sustainability Incubator, a Hawaii-based nonprofit which investigates shrimp industries. She's reported on how American retailers have used their power over the market to drive down the price of shrimp to historic lows even as, she says, they make historic profits. Unless retailers are reined in, Nakamura says they'll just find the next place prepared to cut corners to produce cheap shrimp. The same problem, a different country.
Diaa Hadid, NPR News, Bheemunipatnam, Andhra Pradesh, India. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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