Shrimp Farm Cost Guide: CAPEX, OPEX and Cost per Kilogram

2. Where the capital actually goes

Across the projects we scope, civil works and pond lining are the largest single block, followed by aeration and pumping. Equipment buyers routinely underestimate site services — power supply upgrades, generators, effluent treatment and cold chain regularly add 15–25% to a budget that only counted tanks and blowers.

• Land acquisition or lease0 – 15%

  Highly site-specific; coastal permitted land carries a premium and is often excluded from equipment budgets.

• Earthworks, civil works & pond lining25 – 40%

  Dominant line item in pond systems. HDPE liner alone is typically USD 3–7/m² installed.

• Aeration & water circulation10 – 18%

  Paddlewheels, blowers, diffusers, airlifts. Sized on 1 HP per 400–600 kg of standing biomass.

• Pumping & intake / discharge6 – 12%

  Includes intake channels, sand filters, reservoir ponds and effluent treatment required for permitting.

• Water treatment & biosecurity5 – 15%

  Drum filters, UV/ozone, settling and denitrification in intensive and RAS systems; footbaths, bird nets and fencing everywhere.

• Hatchery / nursery stage5 – 12%

  Two-phase nursery raceways add cost but lift annual cycles from 2 to 3 and materially improve survival.

• Buildings, power, cold chain & site services10 – 20%

  Generators, transformers, feed store, harvest and chilling area, staff facilities.

• Engineering, commissioning & contingency10 – 15%

  Never below 10%. Lenders discount business cases that show no contingency line.

3. Operating cost structure

Feed dominates every shrimp operating budget. A one-point improvement in FCR (say 1.6 to 1.5) is usually worth more than any equipment discount you will negotiate. Post-larvae quality is the second lever: cheap PL that costs USD 3/1,000 but survives at 55% is far more expensive than SPF PL at USD 9/1,000 surviving at 80%.

• Feed45 – 60%

  USD 1.10 – 1.80/kg feed. At FCR 1.4–1.7, feed alone is typically USD 1.7 – 2.9 per kg of shrimp produced.

• Post-larvae (PL)8 – 15%

  USD 3 – 12 per 1,000 PL depending on genetics, SPF status and region. Specific-pathogen-free lines cost more and usually pay for themselves in survival.

• Energy8 – 20%

  Aeration runs almost continuously in intensive systems; indoor RAS adds heating. Model at local tariffs, not regional averages.

• Labour6 – 15%

  Extensive farms are labour-light per hectare; intensive and indoor systems need trained technicians on shift.

• Health, probiotics & water chemistry4 – 8%

  Minerals, alkalinity buffers, probiotics and PCR diagnostics. Cheaper than a disease crash by an order of magnitude.

• Harvest, processing & logistics5 – 12%

  Ice, chilling, packaging, transport to processor. Cold-chain gaps are a common margin leak.

• Maintenance, insurance & overheads5 – 10%

  Budget 3–5% of equipment CAPEX per year for maintenance and spares.

4. Cost per kilogram produced

Farm-gate production cost is the number lenders and offtakers actually test. Benchmarks below assume normal survival, no disease event and full capacity utilisation from year two; a first production year at 60–70% of design output is the realistic base case.

5. Energy and the intensification trade-off

Each step up in intensity converts operating risk into capital and energy cost. Intensive lined ponds need 20–40 HP of aeration per hectare; indoor systems add pumping, heating and oxygen. Where grid power is unreliable or above roughly USD 0.15/kWh, the economics of super-intensive shrimp deteriorate quickly unless the market premium is real and contracted.

6. Making the numbers bankable

Financiers want a cost model that ties equipment specification to biological assumptions: stocking density, survival, FCR, cycles per year, and harvest size. Present CAPEX split into civil, process equipment, services and contingency; present OPEX per kg at three survival scenarios. Projects that show a downside case at 60% survival get funded more often than those that show only the best case.