The Republican Senator from Louisiana, Bill Cassidy, has forcefully argued that Indian shrimp is not to be in America for a number of reasons including forced labor and the sea food being treated with a number of illegal antibiotics.
“Today’s report outlining the abuses at Choice Canning Company’s shrimp processing factory in India makes clear why Indian shrimp does not belong on the shelf alongside Louisiana shrimp,” the Senator said adding “Indian shrimp relies on forced labor and is pumped full of illegal antibiotics. USTR needs to act to ensure American consumers are not put in harm’s way.”
Senator Cassidy’s remarks were against the backdrop of a Whistleblowers Report on the goings on at Choice Canning plant in Andhra Pradesh and general observations at what takes place in other shrimp processing plants in India. The Louisiana Republican had introduced two bills in 2023 to protect his state’s shrimp produced against India’s “dumping of cheap shrimp and produce into U.S. markets”.
It is pointed out just three companies, including Choice Canning, had shipped around 12 percent of all Indian shrimp to the United States in 2023 and is sold in major American and European retailers as also to several American military bases around the world. India’s aquaculture industry is said to supply nearly 40 percent of all shrimp consumed in America.
The whistleblower, Joshua Farinella, left his job at Amalapuram in Andhra Pradesh and returned to the United States after which he filed complaints to several federal agencies alleging many food and safety violations that were knowingly violated including that exported shrimps had tested positive for antibiotics. Choice Canning has strongly denied that it has ever shipped shrimp to the United States containing antibiotics.
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