If you have ever tasted boiled, smoked or fried shrimps; then you would agree that shrimps indeed are a great asset when it comes to culinary adventures. Shrimp is known as one of the world’s healthiest foods and is eaten in all the continents of the world. Its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory content makes it most desirable by those who are careful about their cholesterol intake. It is classified as a marine creature and it is easy to come by especially in coastal area and riverside.

Shrimp farming is known to be a profitable business and has evolved from small scale to a global industry in most countries where it’s carried out. Countries like United States, China, Japan, Thailand and even South American Countries have been farming shrimps on larger scales for a long while. Nigeria isn’t far from the trade as there are lots of people from the riverine areas whose profession is shrimp farming.

If you are looking to go into the sea foods business, good news is that you can’t get it wrong with the shrimps business. This is especially if you live in coastal areas. It is easy to start, cheap to maintain and it takes a shorter time to get a good return on your investment if you know the ropes. Here are basic and simple steps to follow to own and run your Shrimp farm:

Starting a Shrimp Farm – Sample Business Plan Template

1. Get the Right Location-: In choosing a location to start your shrimp business, the first rule is that you must consider some factors like proximity to a shrimp hatchery, closeness to water supply, and closeness to your target market if you must maximize profit. As simple as these sounds, missing one or two of the above stated points might result in a loss of profit margin. You don’t want to spend a fortune on transporting your shrimps to the local market or going to buy juvenile shrimp.

2. Get a Pond-: Various types of shrimp farms exist, namely:

• Freshwater or saltwater
• Cold water or warm water
• Indoors or outdoors ponds

However, you must make sure you know the one you want and then get an expert to help you construct it. It is needful for you to know that there are two types of production cycle when it comes to shrimp farming. It could either be one-phase or two-phase. For the two-phase, it entails that you have your main pond and a nursery pond for cultivating your juvenile shrimps before they are introduced to the main pond after several weeks. While the one-phase entails that the juvenile shrimp is gotten directly from the hatchery to the main pond.

3. Get the Right Water-: Exposing any living thing to the right environment will determine its growth and survival. This means that you must know what kind of water condition will aid the growth of your shrimp farm. Knowing the right PH value of the water you intend filling your pond with will go a long way to determine the survival and growth of your shrimps. It is worthy to note that you must add aerator to the water in your shrimp pond. As matter of fact, running aerator 24 hours a day and 7 days a week is vital to the survival and effective reproductive cycle of your shrimp.

4. Know where to get Juvenile shrimp-: What’s the use of building a fish pond if you don’t know where to get the juvenile to cultivate? As a rule of thumb, you mustn’t just know where to get your juvenile shrimp, you should have other options. If need be, you should learn how to build your own hatchery, if indeed you want to do your shrimp farming business on a large scale.

5. Know when, what and how to feed your shrimp-: Knowing what to feed your shrimps with, when to feed them and how to feed them is vital to their growth and multiplication. It’s a known fact that shrimps feed on algae, insect and larva. Just make sure you create the condition in your ponds that supports the growth of algae. It is advisable to feed shrimps twice a day with shrimp’s food. If you have the right condition in your pond, you will succeed in cutting the feeding budget of your juvenile shrimp, because what they eat can also grow naturally in their pond.

6. Know when and how to harvest your shrimp-: Please note that if you get this process wrong, you might run at a loss. Shrimp pots are used in the harvest of shrimps if you truly want to harvest them in a good condition. In addition, you must ensure that they are mature enough to be eaten. If allowed to grow properly, you would get a good bargain for them. Depending on what part of the globe your shrimp pond is, you can harvest twice or three times in a year. Shrimps pond around the equator harvest three times in a year.

7. Know where and how to sell your shrimp-: It might not be news to you that shrimps are in high demand in most parts of the world. Hence, you just have to know where to locate those interested in buying it. Taking your shrimps to the local markets or even to hotels and restaurants will help you in selling your shrimps faster compared to waiting for your customers to come locate you. You might also want to sell your shrimps online. In selling seafood online; you must ensure effective packaging, preservation and delivery system.

Now you see that those who have made a fortune from the shrimp farming business have taken strict steps in making it work. You too must be eager and focused to learn on the job by adhering strictly to the steps that have been provided in this read. Take note that these steps must be combined to get the desired result. Defaulting in one or more might be tantamount to losing resources.