10 Charts That Explain Why A Slave May Well Have Caught The Shrimp On Your Grill This Summer

If you’re a seafood eater in North America, Japan, or Europe, chances are good that someone endured torture, beatings, sleep deprivation and wage-theft to bring you your shrimp cocktail. That’s the upshot of a harrowing must-read Guardian piece on the rampant abuses in Thailand’s fishing export trade (an issue we’ve reported on in the past). Here’s our visual explanation of the complicated reasons that Thailand’s seafood industry resorts to slavery and the exploitation of migrants:

90% of the 4.6 million tons (4.3 million tonnes) of seafood Thailand produces is exported. These are its biggest markets:

A lot of that is shrimp—a wealthy-country favorite—and Thailand dominates that industry: