Aquaculture Project Budget & Cost Planner
Estimate the full investment for your shrimp farm, fish farm, RAS or hatchery — equipment, logistics, engineering, contingency and financing. Auto-saved, exportable, multilingual, free.
Español: estimador de presupuesto de estanque
Pond budget estimator
One pond · initial investment plus one production cycle. Enter measured dimensions, species-specific assumptions and dated quotes. No built-in market prices.
Submit a full pond budgetSpecies identifies your scenario; it does not insert survival, density or FCR recommendations. All amounts must use the selected currency; changing currency does not convert values.
Your cost scenario
Choose a species and complete the eight pond, production and feed inputs to calculate. Additional costs are excluded until entered.
Planning only, not a supplier quote or safe stocking approval. Water volume assumes a vertical-sided rectangle and mean working depth; sloped or irregular ponds need surveyed volume. Land, permits, taxes, financing and contingency are excluded unless explicitly included in your entered amounts.
No login required. Inputs stay on this page; nothing is sent to the CRM.
Formulas & assumptions
Area = length × width. Volume = area × mean depth. Stocked animals = area × animals/m². Harvest kg = stocked animals × survival/100 × harvest weight/1,000.
Economic feed requirement = harvested kg × entered economic FCR. This uses feed per harvested kg, not closed-cohort biomass-gain FCR; reconcile initial biomass, mortalities and transfers in your own records.
Construction = area × quoted cost/m². Total = construction + equipment/installation + feed kg × feed price + other cycle costs. National FAO production in the case studies is not a price, survival or farm-design input.
Detailed project budget
How the planner works
- Step 1Define your projectCompany, country, project type, capacity, tanks and water source.
- Step 2Add equipment itemsAdd unlimited equipment items across 17 aquaculture categories.
- Step 3Set logistics & project costsModel shipping, customs, engineering, civil works and contingency.
- Step 4Compare scenariosAdjust contingency, freight, FX and financing to stress-test the investment.
- Step 5Export & procureDownload reports and continue to RFQ, tender or financing.
Specialised calculators
Frequently asked questions
Continue with FishMatch Group
Short answer
What is the fastest way to get quotes for Budget Planner?
Submit one structured request for Budget Planner. FishMatch Group translates it into a technical RFQ, runs a confidential sourcing round with project-matched international suppliers, and returns comparable quotations. No fee is charged to the buyer, and your identity and project details stay private until you choose to proceed.
- How it works:
- One structured request, human-reviewed before any supplier outreach
- Typical turnaround:
- Depends on scope and site data; no turnaround is guaranteed
- Confidentiality:
- Supplier names are never exposed during evaluation
- Cost to buyers:
- No fee charged to the buyer
Before you request quotes
Costs & budgeting
How much does a commercial fish farm cost to build?
Budget ranges depend on system type, not on country alone. Pond and cage projects are usually the lowest capital per tonne of annual output, while recirculating (RAS) projects carry the highest equipment and energy share because filtration, oxygenation and backup power are mandatory. Reliable numbers come from a sized bill of quantities — species, target tonnage, water source and grow-out temperature — not from a generic price list. Use the FishMatch calculators to size the project, then submit an RFQ so quotes are priced against the same specification.
What drives the price differences between aquaculture equipment quotes?
Most spread between quotes comes from scope, not from margin: included spares, installation and commissioning, control and automation level, materials (HDPE vs steel vs FRP), certification and testing, delivery terms (EXW vs CIF) and warranty length. Two quotes are only comparable when they answer the same specification. A structured RFQ fixes the scope so differences reflect real engineering choices.
What operating costs should a business plan include?
Feed is normally the largest recurring cost, followed by energy (highest in RAS), labour, fingerlings or post-larvae, health management, water treatment consumables and maintenance. Financing cost and working capital for the first production cycle are frequently underestimated. FishMatch cost tools separate CAPEX from OPEX so the payback assumption is visible rather than implied.