Can Aquaponics systems operate profitably? How about a profit of $40,000 per year?

[MaxZero]

Hi

I live in Western Australia and I am looking for an aquaponics change!

I want to do something good and create a way of making a living as I grow older.

Rather than get into the details [of which there are many and I do fully intend to understand them] I want first to look at the end result or big picture.

Is aquaponics trully viable on a commercial basis?

If so, then

Consider a system that was capable of generating a profit - let us say $40,000 per year

What would that system cost?
What sort of land area would it require?

There are inumerous questions which follow

What is the energy requirement?
How much water is lost/used and needs to be replenished?
Choices
Fish breed
Type of grow beds
Feed for fish

Etc

Is this the right forum for these questions?

I would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction

Many thanks for your help

Cheers

MaxZero

[Privatteer]

I would be grateful if someone could point me in the right direction

Max the course offered in the other thread is going to be a good start.
Beyond that its how long is a piece of string question.

You can do anything from recycled 1000L bulk storage tanks to NFT.

Lets say as an example
10000L tank ~$2000 and perhaps the same again as a sump
20 growbeds ~$370x20 $7400 Most seem to use raft style setups for comercial however.
hydroton for 20 = 200x40 $8000
$1000 in pumps 2@210watts roughly $500 a year running cost
$2000 in fittings
air pumps?
Solids filtration?
Greenhouse/shade house depending on plants?
God knows what the licenses cost, hopefully the course would cover that.

So in my totally unqualified scaleup of my existing system I would be looking at 25-30K roughly.
But if I take a posted ratio as a guide and aiming for 500gram fish without an indepth study perhaps 600 fish total in that system taking up about 130m2 depending on how you spaced it.
How much you going to make selling it as a supplier? Last lot I brought cost me something like $5 for a 250gramm fillet of trout buying fresh. Fresh vegetables is going to vary on what market you can locate.

Basically what i am trying to say there's no point jumping around the forum asking the same question as there is no straight easy answer.
You or someone your paying has to do a lot of research. Determine what system best suits you and then cost it up.

I know of 1 guy trying to do it locally in WA near me, he just flew in 2 consultants for a week from NSW as he didn't do his research and couldn't get it going. I'll leave you to guess how much that cost and I have little hope for the long term success of his latest scheme.

Edit: Hopefully I'm not too far out on any of the above.

[francois]

i believe it can

but...........................................................

[MaxZero]

Thanks Privatteer

I appreciate your endeavouring to address my question and for your advice regarding Tony's course

Cheers

Also,

Many thanks to those others who have posted replies.

My apologies if I have offended.

I do understand the process of apprenticeship, learning and starting small

When I know that that path will, if properly researched, lead to the desired outcome, then I am more than willing to follow it.

I have tried to explain that I wanted to know first whether or not aquaponics could be profitable and operated on a commercial basis.

The web site has numerous forums with various threads including "Commercial systems"

I , therefore, thought I could seek information regarding commercial systems from these forums

Somehow this is considered inappropriate

Again I stress that I understand variability, need to learn etc

I'll stop now, but I am surprised that the question"can aquaponics be commercial - what system is needed to make a profit of say $40,000 per annum" is considered to be naive or presumptious or worse

When solving a problem I like to work back from the solution and plan the steps required to retrace the path

As I said at the beginning. I am looking for a change and, if aquaponics can be manged profitably, and if an appropriate system doesn't cost more than I can afford to pay, and if it doesn't require a land area/ location that I can't afford to purchase, then my aprrenticeship begins now.

If I can't afford it - or there are no examples of successful aquaponics operations, then aquaponics cannot be the change I desire

Thanks for all the fish!!

Cheers

MaxZero

[Ravnis]

I don't know if this an appropriate reply, but I can say that there are commercial aquaponics ventures that are still in business 20 years later. S.S aquafarms, Texas Aquaponics, and then the UVI institute raft system. The SRAC has published multiple studies on the Speraneo System and the UVI system. These are all US based companies, I have no knowlege of examples in your area, but there have been threads on them on this forum.

Unfortunately the information is old and the profit numbers ~100k year were based on prices before the fall agriculture prices here in the US and I have not seen any update as to whether these are still operating profitably.

The Texas Aquaponics one is very tight lipped about its operation and will not give out details or allow tours. It has been in business 6+ years.

The UVI system is a government funded training system, but everything I have read about it says it is profitable in it's own right depending on local market. I believe it is also dependant on produce sales for the majority of it's income.

My intent is similar as your; to be able to make a living at this. As others have pointed out this is possible to do commercial in that others have done it. Whether I can do it or not depends on other factors that they have pointed out such as local market conditions, operator expertise (one majour error and you can lose the whole crop), marketing expertise, management expertise and other requirements basic to running any business.

The responses given weren't implying that it is wrong to ask this question, but rather it is very complicated. They are concerned of giving an oversimplified response and misleading you when there is no way of knowing enough about your current factors to give a good response. Business failures are likely in any enterprise.

The above I have pointed out is not my unique information, but has been said multiple times and in multiple ways on this forum and by extension agents. I do hope it leads you to the next step of finding that information.

[fishfood]

Reading all the info i believe its almost impossible for 1 person to run a large scale aquaponics system successfully and make a 40 k profit

[Crusty]

The american numbers are good for a guide only as most of the data is based on tilapia, but a good place to start. Take for example UVI with tilapia at 76kg/m3 on 36% protein feed. How about you take the numbers published by the UVI and work out the answers yourself, it is not that difficult. This would be a good learning curve for you. Be sure to match the species you choose (tilapia is no good, will be banned in WA next week), weight of fish (you will need to be careful with density) and feed input and you will be away. That will dictate the area of the hydroponic subsystem. Easy. If you are not able to work that out, then I strongly suggest you talk with Tony from Tafe and go from there. You might find you do not like caring for fish 24/7/365.

Personally, I think this is a g-up, fishing trip. If not, my bad. I wish you the best of luck in your adventure.

[MaxZero]

Many thanks Ravnis

Looks like that under a supportive sun we may be on the same path!

You have given me some interesting references/links which I will certainly follow

I wish you good luck in achieving your goal of "making a living out of doing soething good"

Cheers

MaxZero

[ash33]

Max,
IMHO ultimately everyone has put a dollar value on their systems whether for commercial use or not and whether they realize it or not. If your aquaponics system returns a meal on the table for you and your family on a daily or weekly basis it has a value, which is how much it would have cost you to buy the ingredients from the shop less the cost of growing it your self. Over a long enough timeline I'm sure it would be viable ............ ?

I guess the real question on commercial production is "will I be able to make the bank repayments now that I borrowed $100,000 to set up the system?"

Even though I 'm a newbie here my own reading has shown the value on a commercial scale is in the hydroponics and not so much the aquaculture beacuse of the harvest ratios.
I see the financial benifit of aquaponics in potentially reducing the cost of plant growth while giving the grower the option of residual income in the form of fish.

From my own research, without the inclussion of supporting information here, I have come to these conclussions.
- Any start-up estimation should be focused on the hydroponics as it's a much more established enterprize that you can find averaged income figures and it will form the majority of your income.
- Ultimately, income is reliant on market price of produce. Your margin needs to be flexible enough to absorb the lows.

Hope my 2 cents helps

[GaryD]

Hi ash33,

......ultimately everyone has put a dollar value on their systems whether for commercial use or not and whether they realize it or not. If your aquaponics system returns a meal on the table for you and your family on a daily or weekly basis it has a value, which is how much it would have cost you to buy the ingredients from the shop less the cost of growing it your self.

You're right. The best return you'll ever get from the produce you grow will be for the food that ends up in your own kitchen.

Even though I 'm a newbie here my own reading has shown the value on a commercial scale is in the hydroponics and not so much the aquaculture beacuse of the harvest ratios.
I see the financial benifit of aquaponics in potentially reducing the cost of plant growth while giving the grower the option of residual income in the form of fish.

Commercial aquaponics is usually more about plants than fish.....and not just because of the harvesting ratios. Processing and selling fruit and vegetables is subject to much less regulation than selling fish.

Commercial operators talk about covering costs with the fish and making profits with the vegetables.

Gary