Belize Shrimp Growers Association — Certification-Led Cluster Upgrading (2014–2016)

Between 2014 and 2016, the Belize Shrimp Growers Association (BSGA) took part in the Compete Caribbean Partnership Facility's cluster-competitiveness programme, receiving funding for certification, marketing and a Bio-security Aquaculture Zone Management Plan (BAZMP) covering the sector's roughly 15 farming businesses.
With co-funding from the IDB and the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), five to eight Belize shrimp farms achieved Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC) certification - at the time making Belize one of the first countries where the great majority of farmed shrimp met the standard. The certification opened premium UK retail channels (including Marks & Spencer), and an independent 2016 evaluation for the IDB found cluster export value rising from roughly $20 million to $45 million and cluster employment from about 1,100 to 1,400 jobs over the period; a separate IDH-linked accounting of the same certification push reported 600 new jobs, 450 of them for women.
The gains were not immune to shocks: from March 2015 an Early Mortality Syndrome (EMS) outbreak cut Belize's national shrimp production to less than half of its 2014 peak, and the IDB's own evaluators cautioned that reported firm-level results could reflect external factors as well as programme support - a reminder that certification-led upgrading can raise a cluster's ceiling without protecting it from biological or market risk.

Read the full analysis: https://asc-aqua.org/news/belize-shrimp-growers-achieve-asc-certification/