An Analysis of Biological, Economic, and Engineering Factors Affecting the Cost of Fish Production in Recirculating Aquaculture Systems

Aquaculture production in recirculating systems has been the focus of research and development efforts for decades. Although considerable resources have been expended on these systems in the private sector, there is a scarcity of data on the economic or engineering performance of commercial scale recirculating production systems. This paper presents the results of a computer simulation of tilapia production in a small recirculating production system. Much of the performance data has been developed at a demonstration facility at North Carolina State University. Given the assumptions of the base case simulation, the cost of producing a kilogram of tilapia in the recirculating system described is estimated to be $2.79 ($1.27/lb). The results of a model sensitivity analysis indicate that while improvements in the performance efficiency of system components did not greatly affect fish production costs, reductions in feed costs and improvements in the feed conversion ratio caused the greatest reduction of production cost of all of the operational variables investigated. The analysis further indicates that the greatest gains to be realized in improving profitability are those associated with increasing the productive capacity or decreasing the investment cost of a recirculating fish production system.