Why Aquaculture Companies Use FishMatch for Equipment and Project Procurement
Updated 2026-08-27 14 min read
Short answer
Why use FishMatch instead of contacting aquaculture suppliers one by one?
Short answer: because contacting suppliers one by one produces offers that cannot be compared.
Each manufacturer answers the question it was asked, using its own assumptions, its own scope split and its own exclusions. FishMatch works the other way round: the farm is defined first — species, production target, farming method, water source, site conditions and equipment scope — then one structured RFQ goes to relevant manufacturers, and the proposals come back against the same basis. FishMatch is an independent platform: it does not manufacture equipment, does not hold stock and is not a party to the supply contract.
- Starts from:
- The farm system, not a product code
- Output:
- One structured RFQ, several comparable proposals
- FishMatch role:
- Independent procurement platform — not a manufacturer or lender
- Buyer-side sourcing fee:
- None to submit a requirement
Start with the farm, not with the product
Buying equipment and planning an operating aquaculture system are two different exercises. A pump quotation is easy to obtain; a pump that suits the flow, head, salinity, duty cycle and redundancy strategy of a specific farm is a design decision. The questions below usually have to be answered before a supplier can engineer anything worth comparing.
Biological figures such as survival, growth rate and FCR are planning assumptions used for sizing. They are not outcomes that any platform or supplier can guarantee.
What species?
Vannamei, monodon, tilapia, salmon, seabass, seabream, catfish or trout — species sets temperature, oxygen, feed and handling requirements.
How many tonnes per year?
The production target drives standing biomass, and standing biomass drives almost every equipment package.
What farming method?
Ponds, raceways, tanks, sea cages, RAS or biofloc — each implies a different equipment structure and a different operating cost profile.
Freshwater, brackish or seawater?
Water type affects materials, corrosion protection, pumping, treatment and discharge obligations.
What stocking density?
Density assumptions determine tank or pond count and the oxygen and filtration load per unit.
What survival assumptions?
Survival is an assumption used for sizing, not a guaranteed outcome. It should be stated explicitly so suppliers size against the same basis.
What feed requirement?
Feed volume and FCR band shape feed storage, feeding systems and operating cost.
What oxygen demand?
Peak oxygen demand sets aeration, oxygenation and backup requirements.
What water-treatment capacity?
Solids, ammonia and nitrite load define mechanical and biological treatment duty.
What backup is required?
Power failure tolerance, emergency oxygen and alarm strategy are design decisions, not accessories.
Defining the project
A requirement becomes quotable when it carries the context a manufacturer needs to make design choices. Most serious aquaculture briefs are built around these ten inputs:
- Annual production target and phasing
- Species and product form
- Country, region and site location
- Climate and ambient design conditions
- System type (ponds, tanks, raceways, cages, RAS, biofloc)
- Land and water availability
- Electricity supply, tariff and reliability
- Water quality, salinity and temperature profile
- Planned expansion phases
- Project timeline and current stage
The project definition hub walks through each block in order, and pre-project preparation covers what to settle before going to market.
Industry tools that turn a target into a requirement
The FishMatch calculators are indicative planning tools. They help a buyer arrive at an order of magnitude for biomass, feed usage, system size, tank or pond requirement, aeration demand, capacity and project economics — enough to write a credible RFQ and to read the proposals that come back.
Indicative standing biomass from stocking, weight and survival assumptions.
Check density against available water volume.
Working volume for exchange, aeration and liner scope.
Tank battery volume for tank or RAS layouts.
Indicative tank volume, flow and treatment duty for land-based systems.
Indicative oxygen consumption at design biomass.
Indicative aerator count and installed aeration power.
Aeration capacity per hectare for intensive shrimp ponds.
Indicative annual feed volume from production and FCR.
Indicative annual feed spend.
Indicative daily water requirement.
Indicative mechanical and biological treatment duty.
Installed load for grid, generator or solar planning.
Indicative capital envelope for a feasibility discussion.
Indicative return sensitivity across price and cost scenarios.
Indicative annual OPEX build-up.
Indicative production cost per kilogram for shrimp.
Multi-year cost of ownership across competing options.
Outputs are indicative and depend entirely on the assumptions entered. They are not engineering deliverables and do not replace site-specific design or supplier verification. See the methodology.
What makes an aquaculture RFQ useful to a manufacturer
Manufacturers respond to clarity. A brief that states the design basis lets an engineer size a system; a brief that states only "we need aerators" produces a price list. The fields below are the ones that consistently change the quality of the answer:
- Country and site location
- Species and product form
- Annual production target
- Farming method and system type
- Project size and phasing
- Water source, salinity and temperature range
- Existing infrastructure on site
- Equipment categories required
- Implementation stage (concept, feasibility, financed, in construction)
- Target timeline and delivery terms
- Technical files: drawings, layouts, water analyses, specifications
- Budget band, where the buyer is willing to share it
Use the RFQ builder, the RFQ checklist or a worked example RFQ as a starting point.
How manufacturer matching works
A submitted requirement is reviewed against manufacturer and system-supplier profiles: product range, system type, species experience, project scale and the markets they serve and ship to. Where the scope spans several packages, it can be split so each package reaches suppliers that actually build that part.
FishMatch does not claim that every supplier is certified, audited or pre-qualified. Where a specific verification step has been carried out, it is stated explicitly; otherwise, supplier due diligence remains part of the buyer's own process — the supplier qualification checklist sets out what to ask for.
Comparing proposals properly
The cheapest proposal is frequently the one with the narrowest scope. Before comparing price, place every offer on the same basis across these twelve dimensions:
Design capacity
The production or flow capacity each proposal is actually engineered for, at the stated design conditions.
Included scope
What is inside the price: equipment, installation, pipework, electrical, civil interfaces, freight.
Excluded scope
What the buyer must supply. Exclusions are usually where price differences come from.
Energy use
Installed load and expected energy per kilogram produced — often the largest lifetime cost item.
Materials
Tank, pipework, grating and structural material grades and their expected service life.
Controls and automation
Level of instrumentation, alarming, redundancy and remote access included.
Warranties
Warranty duration, what it covers, and the conditions that void it.
Spare parts
Recommended spares package, availability and local support.
Commissioning
Who commissions, for how long, and against what acceptance criteria.
Training
Operator training scope, language and duration.
Delivery
Lead time, Incoterms, packing and site delivery responsibility.
Payment terms
Milestones, advance payment, retention and guarantee instruments.
The buyer commercial model, stated plainly
Buyers can submit sourcing and RFQ requests without a separate buyer-side sourcing fee. The FishMatch commercial model is supported primarily by participating manufacturers, suppliers and commercial partners.
That is a statement about the platform, not about the project. The transaction itself carries real cost: equipment, freight, insurance, duties, civil works, installation, commissioning, spares and services are all commercial matters agreed directly between the buyer and the selected supplier.
Financing and payment terms
Qualifying projects may explore routes such as:
- supplier payment terms and milestone structures
- export finance and export credit support
- project finance
- development finance for eligible markets
- introductions to independent third-party funding partners
FishMatch does not provide credit, leasing or loans, and is not a lender or financial adviser. Every route above depends on provider approval, eligibility, jurisdiction, credit assessment and the provider's own terms. Start with the financing overview or the financing pre-qualifier.
Key applications
Shrimp farming
- Pond systems, liners and nursery raceways
- Intensive and semi-intensive systems
- Paddlewheel and aspirator aeration
- Automatic and acoustic feeding
- Water quality monitoring and probes
- Biosecurity and harvest equipment
Fish farming
- Freshwater and marine systems
- Ponds, tanks, raceways and sea cages
- RAS packages and components
- Mechanical and biological filtration
- Oxygenation and emergency oxygen
- Water treatment and control systems
Expansion and modernisation
- Capacity additions on existing sites
- New site development
- Equipment modernisation and retrofit
- Automation and monitoring upgrades
- Energy and backup power upgrades
- Post-harvest and cold chain additions
Buyer FAQ
Companies — submit your aquaculture requirement
Size the system in the calculators, then submit one structured requirement and receive proposals you can actually compare.