As Matt Craze, author of the annual Land-based Aquaculture Report, outlined at last week’s Global Shrimp Forum, indoor shrimp farming has attracted significant attention and investment over the last decade, promising of fresh, local, biosecure seafood. Yet the reality has proved harsh, with many indoor shrimp ventures closing under the weight of high capital costs, technical difficulties, rising energy bills and the near impossibility of competing on price with imported pond-raised shrimp.
“In theory it's easy, but actually it's been extremely difficult and it's been extremely difficult for some of these companies to raise capital. And we've seen a number of closures this year in particular,” noted Craze. “And we expect that by next year our Land-based Aquaculture Report will show even fewer projects in operation.”
However, despite the “carnage” that Craze observed, the founders of two companies – Atarraya, founded in Mexico and expanding in the United States, and White Panther in Austria – suggest that survival may be possible with the right niche and strategy.
Atarraya: shrimp farming in a box... and beyond
Atarraya’s tactic has been to keep capital and running costs low, having spent 12 years developing its own biofloc-based system – initially at their farm in Oaxaca, Mexico, then in a shipping-container-based site in Indianapolis.
“Biofloc means to have a balanced ecosystem in the tank that is constantly metabolising nitrogen, so you don’t need filtration systems,” explained founder Daniel Russek. “That’s why it’s less expensive on the investment side.”
On the downside, biofloc systems are notoriously complex to manage, but Atarraya has developed a proprietary software system, based on over 60 of its own production protocols to ensure the smooth running of the farm.
“It’s an expert system that doesn’t know how to play chess. It knows how to farm shrimp,” Russek quipped.
While Atarrya initially exported shrimp from Mexico to the US, the pandemic inspired them to develop a system that could be established close to urban US markets and the company caused quite a stir when it launched its signature innovation – the modular Shrimpbox – at the Boston Seafood Show in 2022.
“We wanted to prove a point that we can turn even an exhibition floor into a shrimp farm,” Russek explained.
The company is in the process of developing its third shrimp farm design, loosely based on the greenhouses used to grow tomatoes
Atarraya has since expanded and, after receiving an order for 3,000 lb of shrimp a week from a customer in New York, decided to move from Indianapolis to a one acre site on the third floor of a converted industrial building in New Jersey – a site that allows them to deliver fresh shrimp to Manhattan within an hour of harvest.
However, to achieve this they had to achieve a radical redesign of their farming system, due to the impossibility of fitting shipping containers through the building’s windows. The end result was christened Shrimpbox Air and came with unexpected benefits, reducing the Capex by 70 percent, according to Russek, due to costs saved on container logistics.
Although Atarraya began by selling to chefs and premium foodservice providers, Russek believes that their shrimp are set to become increasingly price competitive, as their footprint expands.
“The question is, can we compete with imports? We accept that challenge,” he declared.
Russek’s optimism is explained by the fact that he’s not interested in farm gate prices in Asia and Latin America, but – given his lower logistics costs and lack of tariffs – he is interested in the prices that US restaurants are paying for their shrimp.
“At $8 per pound, any restaurant in Central Jersey can afford our shrimp,” Russek reflected.
And he went on to outline calculations that suggest Atarraya can dramatically reduce production costs from a loss-making $13 per pound to beneath the $8 threshold, especially if they move from their New Jersey site to a more agricultural setting which could accommodate a new farm design.
“We call it the Shrimpbox farming module. It's basically 60 Shrimpbox systems. The enclosure might be familiar. It's just a greenhouse for tomatoes. Turns out that tomatoes and shrimp, they kind of like the same temperature. And the technology for tomatoes is very well understood. It's very easy to replicate,” he explained.
And Russek is convinced that it can turn a rapid profit for investors,
“So what's the business case for this? Basically $4 million in capex, $3 million in sales, 14 month equity payback,” he argued.
According to the founder, it’s the logical conclusion of Atarraya’s development.
As he explained: “The goal of Oaxaca was to prove that we can master biofloc. The goal of Indianapolis was to prove that we can produce shrimp without being next to the ocean. The goal of Plainfield, New Jersey was to show that we could save on capex. The goal of our next farm, and we're getting funding for that, is to prove that we can get to this $5.3 per pound. And at $8 selling to any restaurant in Central Jersey, we can have 34 percent margins.”
© White Panther
White Panther: Austria’s alpine shrimp pioneer
On the other side of the Atlantic, White Panther has been taking a very different approach. Located in Styria, Austria, the company moved away from its initial venture into biofloc toward clearwater RAS, which CEO, Eva Keferböck, says is more reliable for achieving year-round production and higher shrimp quality.
White Panther’s positioning is unapologetically premium. Shrimp are harvested three times a week and 80 percent of them are delivered fresh within 24 hours, while the remaining 20 percent is frozen.
“We don’t want to compete with imported shrimp. We do a completely different story,” Keferböck stressed. “We sell fresh shrimp at an average of €80 per kilogram to a higher-end consumer level.”
As a result, despite scope to expand, they have decided to limit their production to about 35 tonnes a year.
“We don't go in for overproduction, because then the price will go down,” Keferböck notes.
This model relies on cultivating a market for local, sustainable shrimp – one that values provenance and freshness over price.
“After five years serving the market, we know we will never compete with imported shrimp, and we don’t want to. We serve small regional markets in Europe with high-end consumers,” she added.
White Panther’s farm is equipped with 56 tanks and over 250 alarms, ensuring tight control and biosecurity, in-line with their integrated business strategy, from hatchery to harvest.
“Our hatchery is the heart of White Panther,” explained Keferböck. “At the moment, we are the only hatchery in Europe selling post-larvae to other companies. Per month we sell about two million PLs to about 40 customers in and around Europe.”
And, although production costs are high, they are less prone to be affected by fluctuating energy prices, as they have their own power sources, which helps with stability.
“We own five hydroelectric power plants and a wood gasification plant,” Keferböck explained. “If you don’t use renewable energy or energy from an industrial byproduct, you will never be able to cover the costs.”
© White Panther
Lessons to be learned
Indoor shrimp farming remains an industry littered with casualties, but Atarraya and White Panther suggest that there is more than one option to remain solvent.
Atarraya is betting on modular scalability, biofloc-driven cost reduction, and urban proximity - with a farming system designed to bring fresh shrimp to cities at prices restaurants can afford.
“We have proven it’s hard, yes, but we have also proven it can work,” Russek argued.
Meanwhile White Panther is doubling down on premium positioning, energy self-sufficiency and vertical integration, serving Europe’s fine dining and luxury retail markets.
As Keferböck predicts: “Fresh locally farmed shrimp will emerge as a separate product range, independent of imported competition.”
