How to Plan and Procure a Commercial Shrimp or Fish Farm Project: Specification and RFQ Checklist

plan a commercial shrimp or fish farm in this order — production model, site and water, production system (pond, biofloc, RAS or cage), oxygen and aeration, pumping and water treatment, feed, biosecurity, harvest, processing and cold chain — and only then ask suppliers to quote. Write each decision into one project specification, send the same RFQ to every bidder, and compare quotes line by line on scope, duty conditions, energy and water use, installation, commissioning, warranty and after-sales support. Supplier figures are claims until you verify them; local permits and import rules must be confirmed with the relevant authority.

This guide is for project owners, investors and procurement teams preparing a commercial aquaculture project — new build, expansion or turnkey package — who want quotes they can actually compare. It does not give prices, yields or survival rates, because those depend on your species, site, country and supplier; it shows you which inputs decide them and what to ask for. FishMatch Group reviews commercial project RFQs from USD 250,000. It is not a manufacturer, contractor, operator, certifier or regulator.

Who this guide is for and what you will have at the end

• Project owners and investors deciding whether a shrimp or fish farm concept is ready to be priced.
• Procurement and engineering teams writing an equipment or turnkey RFQ and comparing commercial supplier offers.
• Consultants and lenders checking that a project brief contains the inputs a bank or engineer will ask for.

At the end you should have a written production model, a site and water data pack, a chosen system with the reasons recorded, a project specification and an RFQ checklist you can send to several suppliers under the same conditions. A printable version of the checklist is at the end of this article.

Step 1 — Fix the production model before anything is priced

Every later number follows from the production model. Write down species (for shrimp, usually Penaeus vannamei or P. monodon; for fish, the exact species), product form your buyer wants, annual tonnes, harvest weight, number of crops or cohorts per year, and the survival and feed conversion assumptions you will plan with. From these you derive peak standing biomass and peak daily feed — the two numbers that size oxygen, filtration, pumps and power.

• Use the biomass calculator and the fish growth calculator to turn targets into biomass and feed.
• State whether your assumptions come from your own records, a consultant, published research or a supplier. Label each one; a supplier's survival or FCR figure is a claim, not a design basis.
• Decide phasing now: a first module that can be expanded is quoted very differently from a single full build.

Step 2 — Collect site and water data suppliers can design from

A production target the site cannot support is the most expensive mistake in aquaculture procurement. Before asking for quotes, assemble a data pack: land area and topography, soil type (for ponds, permeability and whether a liner is needed), access, flood and storm exposure, grid connection and its reliability, and the discharge route for effluent and sludge.

For water, record the source (sea, estuary, borehole, river, municipal), available flow, and measured — not assumed — parameters across the year: temperature range, salinity, dissolved oxygen, pH, alkalinity, hardness, ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, turbidity and suspended solids, iron and any known contaminants. Include the laboratory, sampling dates and season. Check volumes with the water consumption calculator and, for reuse systems, the RAS water turnover calculator.

Permits for land use, water abstraction, discharge, construction, species introduction and animal movements differ by country and region. Treat them as project inputs, list who will obtain each one, and confirm requirements with the competent authority; see our regulation and restricted items register for how we screen requests.

Step 3 — Choose the production system against the site, not a catalogue

The right system is the one your water, land, power, skills and market can support. The table compares the questions each option raises; it is a planning aid, not a ranking.

Read our deeper comparisons before you decide: pond vs biofloc vs RAS for vannamei, the shrimp farming equipment guide and the system specification guide.

Step 4 — Size aeration and oxygen from peak feed, with a failure plan

Oxygen demand follows peak feeding and peak biomass, not pond or tank volume. Ask each supplier to state the oxygen duty they designed for, the equipment that delivers it and the assumptions used. For ponds this usually means paddlewheel, aspirator or diffused aeration, sometimes with pure-oxygen injection; for RAS, oxygen cones or diffusers fed by liquid oxygen or an oxygen generator.

• Compare aerators on rated oxygen transfer and efficiency and the test conditions behind the rating. Ratings measured under standard test conditions are higher than field performance in warm, saline or heavily stocked water.
• Specify backup: generator capacity, automatic transfer, alarm and low-oxygen response. A failure at night is a design case, not an accident.
• Ask for dissolved-oxygen monitoring points and alarms in the scope.
• Check sizing with the oxygen demand calculator, power requirement calculator and generator sizing calculator. Our shrimp aeration, feeding and monitoring guide covers vendor comparison in detail.

Step 5 — Specify pumps, intake, filtration and effluent treatment

Pumping and water treatment are where incomplete RFQs create the largest change orders. Define flows at each point — intake, supply, recirculation, drainage, harvest — with the head, duty and standby arrangement. For RAS, the loop (mechanical filtration, biofiltration, degassing, disinfection, oxygenation, temperature control) must be sized from feed load; for ponds, intake screening, settling or reservoir treatment and drainage matter most.

• Ask for pump curves, materials suitable for your salinity, power draw at duty point and spare parts.
• State effluent and sludge handling as part of scope, not an exclusion.
• Size with the pump sizing calculator and filtration calculator; our filtration systems guide explains each stage.

Step 6 — Plan feed supply, storage and feeding

Feed is usually one of the largest operating costs, so plan it before you buy feeders. Confirm who can supply a suitable feed for your species and life stages in your country, lead times, storage conditions (dry, cool, protected from pests) and the feed budget from your production model. Then specify feeding: manual, demand or automatic feeders, how feed delivery will be measured, and how feeding links to oxygen monitoring. Use the feed budget calculator and read how to match feed and feeding systems.

Step 7 — Design biosecurity into layout, seed supply and operations

Biosecurity is a layout and procurement decision, not only an operating rule. Define zones and movement routes, water intake treatment, crab or bird exclusion where relevant, footbaths and vehicle washing, quarantine for incoming stock, and dead-stock disposal. For seed, specify species, life stage, health status and the documents you will require — for shrimp post-larvae, a stated specific-pathogen-free (SPF) status means freedom from a defined list of pathogens at the source, not immunity to disease.

• Ask hatcheries for health testing records and the laboratory, and confirm import permits and health certificates with the destination's veterinary authority before ordering.
• Plan a nursery phase if it fits your model; see the shrimp nursery planning guide and shrimp disease prevention and biosecurity guide.
• Compare hatchery options on our vannamei hatchery page.

Step 8 — Plan harvest, processing and the cold chain from the buyer backwards

Start from the customer: product form (live, fresh on ice, frozen, cooked), size grades, packaging, labelling, volumes per delivery and destination market rules. Work back to harvest method and frequency, ice production or chilling, grading, processing equipment, freezing, cold storage and transport. Ask the processor or buyer for the temperature and handling specification they require; destination rules on food safety, labelling and traceability must be confirmed for each market.

Read our seafood cold-chain design guide and shrimp harvest planning guide for the details.

Step 9 — Write the project specification and RFQ

A specification turns the decisions above into a document every bidder prices the same way. It should state the outcome, the design basis, the scope boundaries and how you will accept the work. Our guide to why buyers need written specifications explains each part; the checklist at the end of this article lists the minimum contents.

• One scope for all bidders. Do not let each supplier define its own scope; you will not be able to compare offers.
• Duty conditions stated. Water temperature, salinity and peak feed load should be in the RFQ, not left to supplier assumptions.
• Interfaces named. Who supplies civil works, buildings, power connection, water intake and discharge, and who connects them.
• Acceptance defined. Commissioning tests, performance checks, training and documentation that must be completed before final payment.

Step 10 — Compare supplier quotes line by line

When quotes arrive, normalise them into one table before talking price. Separate what is a verified fact (documents you have checked), a supplier claim (stated by the bidder, not yet verified) and an estimate (your own or a calculator's, with assumptions).

See RFQ best practices for aquaculture buyers and aquaculture project procurement management for evaluation and acceptance.

Common mistakes in aquaculture project procurement

• Buying equipment before the production model and water data are fixed.
• Accepting a supplier's yield, survival or FCR as the design basis without independent review.
• Comparing turnkey quotes with different scopes, Incoterms or currencies.
• Leaving aeration backup, effluent treatment or biosecurity out of scope to make a quote look cheaper.
• Ordering post-larvae, eggs or fingerlings before import permits and health certificates are confirmed.
• Treating a lead time or delivery date as guaranteed before it is in a signed contract.
• Ignoring local permits until construction, when a refusal is most expensive.

How FishMatch Group can review your project RFQ

If your project is USD 250,000 or more, you can submit a project brief or RFQ for free. A person on our team reviews it, asks for missing information, and structures it so that qualified suppliers respond to the same scope. Your contact details are not shared with suppliers without your approval, and you do not need to contact suppliers directly. We do not guarantee prices, availability, delivery, compliance or outcomes; quotes come from independent suppliers and must be checked before you commit. Smaller requests are saved and pointed to our free planning tools.