Windfall from Walmart

The projects are run by the Sustainable by the Fisheries Partnership (SFP) and relate to shrimp and tilapia farming.

The Indonesian project will focus on the local shrimp farming industry and developing local resource management groups across much of Indonesia to benefit from training programs, knowledge-sharing and resource use. SFP will reach 10,000 farmers in Indonesia with close collaboration with suppliers and the government.

The Thailand shrimp project will focus on local resource co-management and specifically target underserved women in farming families through the delivery of training around disease control, water quality monitoring and business management.  The grant from the Walmart Foundation will help SFP target a wider area of Thailand to engage more stakeholders in the pursuit of safe, sustainable aquaculture.

In China, which has been the world’s leading tilapia-farming region for nearly two decades, the grant will help develop a Code of Good Practice that farms will follow both individually and collectively. In addition, the grant will help SFP engage with more than 2,000 small-scale farmers, a third of whom are women. Women play a particularly pivotal role in family-owned hatcheries and training will be targeted toward their technical empowerment in terms of water quality and business management.

“We are proud to support SFP on this project, which combines environmental sustainability with preserving and sustaining important food sources,” said Kathleen McLaughlin, President, Walmart Foundation. “We look for opportunities to bring together projects that improve livelihoods and protect the environment; this grant helps us support the great work of SFP in achieving winning outcomes for the people in the aquaculture industry and the environment.”

“Small-scale aquaculture farming families in Asia provide the bulk of farmed fish and shrimp that ends up on our plates. Training them on improved production practices and the value of working together to improve the environment they are growing these fish and shrimp in is a win-win for everyone,” said Anton Immink, Aquaculture Director at SFP. “The Walmart Foundation’s support for Aquaculture Improvement Projects encourages shared environmental management that reduces risks and increases benefits for all producers and gives smallholder farming families the chance to benefit from improved market access.”