Mexico Sinaloa artisanal blue shrimp – drift/cast nets

Empowering coastal communities development the improvement of three main pillars: social, ecologic and economic.

We as Del Pacifico Seafoods dedicate our work to buy, process and export wild caught shrimp, as company we based our business model by the Fair Trade USA Fisheries Standard, which is designed to improve the producer’s communities development. We are committed with the producers not only as buyers but as exporters of their culture and products, we work really close to them.

1.- One of their biggest problems is the changes of the ecosystem dynamics that affect the primary production and therefore the rest of the food chain. This because mainly of cutting mangrove and contamination, the bad practices, nearby aquaculture farms that kills larvae and discharges of polluted waters. This of course must be solved with the government agencies and the people, but we support the communities with the improvement of the ecosystem helped by a Fair Trade USA Premium fee, paid yearly and equivalent to the 3% of the sale price. This is the solution in which we are committed, to improve the environmental system of this region.

2.- We are proposing that financing we can increase the scope of this project also support and enhance the impact and consequential benefits for the environment.

3.- This solution aims to improve the health of the environment in the coastal Region of North/Central Sinaloa, and as a consequence the social and economic development.

This project is supported by an international standard unique in the fisheries that reduces the supply chain, economically supports the communities and empowers them to take care of their environment, organize them in order to take decisions, been inclusive with all the participants and also rejects racism.

With all of this we want to make the project bigger to be an example of progress and development to the world.

It's a big part of the project it helps us to communicate faster and keep in touch with the people, gather and share necessary information. Integrates in the traceability during the fishing, which allow us to communicate the final consumer where the shrimp was fished.

To take a big leap in the progress of the project, improve the actual work and make a more noticeable change. Hoping with this more support of the community.

The project that we manage is inclusive with all the fisherman that respect the official guidelines of the standard and their products people that want to certificate their shrimp. In order with this we are supporting already some visible changes for all the community, but, through financing we want to increase the scope of the project.

Most of our costumers market the product with pride and insurance that through this, they are making a change in the producers life. And also for the planet. The Fair Trade USA Standard helps us to give credibility and market to the product.

The actual beneficiaries are the producers, we work with 9 fisheries cooperatives, that approximately have around a thousand partners, so this are the directly beneficiaries, and on average 2 or three persons as indirect beneficiaries, it's around two thousand people that benefits from the project. But at the scope is more than that because the beneficiaries are the whole community. This numbers reflects only the fisher community.

Our work year" when the fishery is open, we only can include more people to the project during the closed season, that ends in middle august during this period maybe 1 more fisher association will be added to the program, let's say another 80 fishers. Discuss were held with other fisher associations, we are expecting to have in three years around 200 more fishers. But, the impact would be noticeable because the improvements of the Premium fee are ligated to some specific areas, ecological is one of them. So the improvement of the landscape will be the most noticeable one.

The team has already been working with founding request in the beginning of the project some founding was requested to The David and Lucile Packard Foundation. And with the close working with the FTUSA Standard, the annual Premium fee, supports this project.

Our main source of income is shrimp sales, in this sales and extra amount it's charged to the final consumer (as FTUSA dictates), and this amount is payed directly to the producer once a year. The company is interested and permanently have the FTUSA certificate. Which will allow us to keep supporting this projects, and expanding new possibilities that involves the beneficiary decisions.

We are empowering people to speak, and have a voice with the authorities and between other communities, we really believe that the advance we are projecting is a long term solution to the overdue progress the communities have experienced since the fishery impact was reflected in the decrease of the targets species population and the decrease of the captures.

And the bad administration the Fisher Associations (this is the way people organizes in this region) have since the late 80's.

One of the key barriers is the lack of founding, with our program we have already make some progress, but we believe that with some extra founding we can increase the scope of the project and the goal achievement.