Deep Dive
The Hidden Cost of Everyday Buying: A Shrimp Case Study on Human Rights Risks in Supply Chains
ORGANIZED BY
ETI, Freedom Fund, Humanity United
15-Sep
11:15-12:00
Conference Room 4
This Deep Dive explores how purchasing practices create hidden human rights risks in shrimp supply chains. Participants examine worker realities, supplier pressures and buyer constraints, and consider what behavioural shifts, enabling conditions and trust-building steps are needed to support more resilient, rights-respecting value chains.
Topic in Focus
What happens when purchasing practices create human rights risks in shrimp supply chains, and how can buying companies shift their behaviour to strengthen suppliers, workers and resilience?
Overview
This Deep Dive explores how purchasing practices create hidden human rights risks in shrimp supply chains. Participants examine worker experiences, supplier pressures and buyer constraints, and consider what behavioural shifts, enabling conditions and trust‑building steps could support more resilient, rights‑respecting value chains.
Why it matters
Shrimp supply chains show how commercial pressure from buying companies shapes conditions for suppliers and workers. ETI’s research finds that decisions on price, timing and order management can increase human rights risks and weaken resilience. These dynamics are especially visible in shrimp but occur across many sectors, making it vital to understand how purchasing practices contribute to risk and what conditions enable openness, trust and potential behavioural shifts.
Who should attend?
This session is relevant for policy makers, trade unions, INGOs and NGOs, unions, worker rights organisations, farmers, processors, importers, agents, retailers and companies across global sourcing. It is suitable for anyone interested in understanding how commercial dynamics influence human rights risks and resilience in global supply chains.
What participants will gain
Insight from companies engaged in RPP on why they chose to address purchasing practices and what internal conditions enabled them to start.
Perspectives from supply‑chain actors on current lived experiences, the bottlenecks these create, and what changes would meaningfully support them.
Lived experience from worker representatives on the realities workers face and what improved purchasing practices can bring.
Practical understanding of where to begin, how to open these conversations inside their own organisations, and what is needed to create an enabling environment for change across the chain.
Melissa Karadana
Purchasing Practices Programme Lead, Ethical Trading Initiative
Melissa Karadana leads the Purchasing Practices Programme at the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). Her work focuses on how companies’ buying decisions affect workers and suppliers across global supply chains, with emphasis on seafood, apparel and textiles, and mined minerals and metals. She works with retailers, food companies, trade unions, and NGOs to review commercial decision making and apply the Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices.
Melissa has led sector specific projects examining how procurement practices influence labour risks, including initiatives in the shrimp sector, apparel sourcing, and mining. Her work supports companies in strengthening buyer–supplier engagement and integrating responsible business conduct into purchasing strategies.
Before joining ETI, Melissa spent seven years in sourcing and procurement in the fashion and textile industry across China, Turkey, and Southeast Asia. She later served as Programme Director for an NGO in the Philippines, overseeing programmes on girls’ education, women’s economic empowerment, and gender responsive procurement.
Roisai Wongsuban
Freedom Fund / Independent Consultant, Human Rights Expert
Roisai Wongsuban is an independent consultant specialising in migration, labour rights, and business and human rights across Thailand and the wider region. With extensive experience working on migrant worker protection, ethical recruitment, and responsible supply chains, she supports organisations in strengthening rights‑based approaches and improving labour conditions. Roisai has collaborated with NGOs, international organisations, and private‑sector partners, bringing deep expertise in stakeholder engagement, policy development, and on‑the‑ground implementation.
Ussarin Kaewpradap Luthra
Executive Director, Labour Rights Foundation
Ussarin Kaewpradap Luthra is the Executive Director of the Labour Rights Foundation, where she leads efforts to advance labour rights, strengthen worker protections, and promote fair employment practices across Thailand. Before joining the Labour Rights Foundation, she worked with the Solidarity Center, contributing to programmes focused on migrant worker rights, freedom of association, and improving labour conditions in key sectors.
Huan Nguyễn
Responsible Sourcing Manager, Tesco
Huan Nguyen is Tesco’s Responsible Sourcing Manager for Southeast Asia, overseeing human rights due diligence, ethical trading, and responsible sourcing across complex regional supply chains. He leads supplier engagement, manages risk and labour‑related issues, and supports the development and implementation of Tesco’s global human rights and sustainability standards. Before joining Tesco, he worked with UNDP as a Business and Human Rights Specialist, contributing to Vietnam’s National Action Plan on BHR and delivering training on HRDD and responsible business conduct. He also previously worked with the Danish Institute for Human Rights, focusing on responsible value chains, sustainability frameworks, and emerging regulatory trends.