Aquaculture has a specific and unique value chain within the agricultural segment. As yet there are not sufficient production volumes in place to justify third party offtakes to handle specific value chain components such as processing, packaging, cold storage etc. This is mirrored in a study of successful aquaculture operations globally where the vast majority are vertically integrated, owing primarily due to circumstances at their time of inception.
A failure to appreciate the full value chain will typically end in business failure. Many such failures have begun with viable species and viable production systems only to be let down by the inability to process to a market need, or a failure to consider the costs of implementing the missing value chain components appropriately.
More often the process of ensuring that each value chain component is operating at an optimum level is inconsistent with supply lags and surges resulting in idle time and overtime respectively, with attendant strain on labour, machinery and other input costs. The financial degrees of freedom in agriculture, and by implication aquaculture, are typically not consistent with businesses that operate in niche markets at high margins.
