The aquaculture buyer's guide — six stages, and the tool for each one
Discovery, planning, comparison, budgeting, procurement and implementation. What closes at each stage, and which FishMatch calculator, guide or checklist gets you there.
What are the stages of buying an aquaculture system?
Six: discovery (species, system, market), planning (sizing), comparison (like-for-like offers), budgeting (CAPEX, OPEX, financing readiness), procurement (one RFQ to every supplier) and implementation (delivery, commissioning, handover). Sizing always precedes pricing — a quote requested before the design basis exists cannot be compared with anything.
Stages:
6, each with one decision to close
First priced step:
Stage 4 — after sizing
Tools:
Calculators, checklists and guides, free to use
Human review:
At RFQ stage only, on request
Stage 1
Discovery — species, system and market
Is this project worth pursuing at all?
Before any equipment question, decide what you are producing, in which system, and for which market. Most cost surprises later trace back to a system chosen before the water, power and market were checked.
What you decide here
Species and target market (local, national or export)
System type: pond, cage, flow-through, biofloc or RAS
Site basics: water source and quality, power, land, permits
Stage closes when: You can name the species, the system and the production target in one sentence.
Sizing comes before any price. Tanks or ponds, flow, biofilter, oxygen demand and aeration follow from biomass, temperature and feed load — not from a supplier's catalogue.
What you decide here
Peak biomass and stocking density
Oxygen demand and aeration or oxygenation method
Water turnover, treatment level and make-up water
Stage closes when: You have a written design basis: capacity, temperature, flow, oxygen and treatment assumptions.
How design choices change what you will be quoted.
Stage 3
Comparison — like-for-like, not headline price
Which system or supplier offer is actually better?
Offers rarely arrive on the same scope. Comparison means restating every quote on one scope, one incoterm and one currency before looking at the total.
What you decide here
Scope of supply and battery limits per package
Freight, duties, installation and commissioning inclusion
Energy per kilogram produced, not just purchase price
Stage closes when: One table where every offer answers the same question.
How do I run the RFQ without losing control of scope?
The same scope text, incoterm, warranty terms and delivery date go to every invited supplier, including the ones you already know. Clarifications go back in writing instead of being estimated.
What you decide here
Lot structure: one integrator or separate packages
A person reads it; nothing is auto-matched or auto-sent.
Stage 6
Implementation — delivery, commissioning and handover
What happens between order and first stocking?
The last stage is where scope gaps become invoices. Installation responsibility, commissioning days, spare parts and training should be priced in the offer, not negotiated after delivery.
What you decide here
Who installs, who supervises, who commissions
Spares package and in-region service capability
Training, documentation and acceptance testing
Stage closes when: A commissioned system with documentation, spares and a named service route.
Who to bring in for supervision and commissioning.
Calculator and planning outputs are estimates for scoping and RFQ preparation, not engineering design. FishMatch Group is not a manufacturer, importer, broker, EPC contractor, lender or investment advisor, and supplier identities are never published.
Buyer questions
What are the stages of an aquaculture project?
Discovery (species, system, market), planning (sizing), comparison (like-for-like offers), budgeting (CAPEX, OPEX and financing readiness), procurement (one RFQ to every supplier) and implementation (delivery, commissioning and handover). Each stage has a decision that has to close before the next one is meaningful.
What should I do before asking suppliers for prices?
Fix the design basis: production target, species, temperature, water source, oxygen demand and treatment level. Without it, every quote answers a different question and none of them can be compared.
When should I involve a consultant?
Usually at planning and again at comparison. A sizing error is cheap to fix on paper and expensive to fix in steel, and a normalised comparison is what turns four offers into one decision.
Are the FishMatch calculators engineering design?
No. They are planning estimates for scoping and RFQ preparation. Final sizing and design must be confirmed by a qualified engineer or specialist for your site.
Ready for stage 5?
When the design basis and budget exist, send the project for human review. Nothing is matched or sent automatically, and your details are never shown to suppliers without your agreement.