Backyard Aquaponics
A place to discuss aquaponics

Does anyone have a pro forma or a feasibility study for commercial aquaponics or know where I can get one?

Check out the UVI system. So far I think that is about the only one that had any figures to speak of. Commercial aquaponics does not really seem to exist as yet. At least any that produce anything close to commercial quantities when compared to other forms of agriculture both aqua and veg. Perhaps other people will have a better idea. I am very interested in this knowing this too but have failed to dredge up any significant data.

They are out there, just not sharing commercial info on public forums.

Are they really Paul.... there's certainly been quite a few "startups" in the last year or two....

But have any of them actually, really demonstrated consistant commercial return....

From what I have seen John, yes. There are also quite a few aquaculture farms running plant systems of their waste streams for a second, be it, small income for more years than this site has been about. Nice to offset increasing fish feed costs.

Yep, certainly there are operations that utilise effluent wastes streams.... as a secondary income stream...

And Taylor Made, and Barramundi Blue do/did for many years... and quite profitably....

But the capital costs of those operations were based primarily on pure aquaculture operations at startup....

Is there actually a case for "commercial aquaponics"... as a startup venture???

And apart from UVI, Taylor Made & Barramundi Blue.... I've not heard of any/many systems that have really been in operation since "before this site has been around"....

Can you give examples.... and I'm not talking trials/experiments...

Isn't eco city still running at nimbin? It was two months ago, I think they just restocked it with some 2000 barra...

Could well be.. having kept tabs on them over the last year...

But there's a case in point when it comes to the "financials".... which usually are imposible to actually obtain....

Their "original" system was being franchised at $million+.... and much of that seemed to be back-ended with an integrated financial computer app...

And many of the "original" returns.... seemed to be sudsidised by the existing permaculture/hydroponic production....

Have they/do they actually stack up as a commercially viable enterprise based on fish/vegetable production alone???

They might... and I guess the UES project will determine this in the long run... but to those seeking answers within threads like this....

Then the bottom line is these kinds of projects are like large scale aquaculture or agribusiness ventures.... $million+ capex startups....

I am not sure what system you are talking about John. This is not the inventors system, this is their fish and hydro system at Nimbin.

I haven't seen their latest revised operation... I'm heading up that way around Xmas...

But "eco city" "rivendell" were their original incarnation.... and were part and parcel of a bigger "holistic" "sustainable" living approach.. (and no crticism inended or implied)

IMO... the original "new inventors" system didn't appear to be commercially viable...

What sort of vegetable production per annum are they achieving with their 2000 Barra system... any idea???

I will leave them to fill you in on the details should they want to, but it is operating with a fish system and a hydroponic system and has been for quite a long time. Considering their remote location it is a pretty good indication of the viability.

This may have some info
http://www.steppingstoneequity.com.au/files/SC_UES2.pdf

OK... from that link...



So there's a sense of scale for the poster of the question...

And here's a sense of the "financials"... or at least those pertaining to this system...

That is not a reflection of cost of the system they are running, that is for other systems built on similar yet different technology...

Probably true... but actually getting real "financials" from their smaller scale "proof of concept" system... isn't probably possible...

So is the scale of their 2000 Barra "proof of concept" commercially viable?????

That's the question being asked here and other threads.... and everything suggests, from proposed projects.... that the scale required for commercial viability... might be significantly larger...

Taylor Made is significantly larger... and seemingly profitable.... but over time... has probably required $6-7 million.. to acheive the current levels of production...