Sofina, Taika and Shrimp Welfare Project

Humane Slaughter Pilot Agreement

Sofina, and their producer Taika have signed a commitment with Shrimp Welfare Project (SWP) to collaborate to ensure the welfare of shrimps within Taika’s farms.

Taika's commitments include limits to stocking densities and a ban on eyestalk ablation in shrimps destined for Young's. Taika will also ensure that slaughter methods are as humane as possible. To this end, Shrimp Welfare Project has committed to support Taika by providing electrical stunning equipment, developed by the Norwegian company, Optimar.

With this innovative equipment, Taika will be able to stun a significant proportion of their annual shrimp production, further enhancing animal welfare standards within their operations. This will ensure that over 4,000 metric tonnes of Litopenaeus vannamei shrimps per year, (i.e. on average 270 million shrimps per year) are slaughtered as humanely as possible.

As part of this collaboration, Sofina continues to achieve and progress our animal welfare goals to provide shrimp with high welfare credentials to the UK market.

On behalf of Taika, I would like to express our thanks to all of you for the sponsorship of stunning machine to our farm system. We always take pride in our high-quality farmed shrimp and following this agreement, we are looking forward to incorporating electrical stunning machine. We appreciate your sponsorship as this will help us improve animal welfare during harvesting, sustainability as well as the quality of our shrimp.
Do Ngoc Tai, Taika Seafood Corporation, General Director

Sofina Europe are thrilled to see the results of promoting improved welfare at harvest being taken on board by Taika and grateful for the vision of Shrimp Welfare Project with equipment for them to use. Optimar stunning equipment is in place in a number of species in our supply chains and we are excited once we can see it in operation at Taika. It is a great addition to the welfare and quality focus already being demonstrated by Taika.
Will Davies, Sofina Europe, Group CSR Manager

We're thrilled to announce this inspiring partnership between Sofina, Taika, and Shrimp Welfare Project. Together, we're raising the bar for shrimp welfare standards. With SWP's support and cutting-edge equipment from Optimar, Taika will stun over 4,000 metric tonnes of shrimps annually, ensuring a more humane treatment. We are grateful to Taika and Sofina for taking this important step in the right direction.
Andrés Jiménez Zorrilla, Shrimp Welfare Project, CEO