Aquaponics Business Plan: Greens, Herbs and Fish

An aquaponics farm grows greens and herbs in water fed by fish: the fish waste feeds the plants, and the plants clean the water. The plants are where the money is; the fish are a small second product. A head of lettuce costs little in seed and fish feed, but the greenhouse, its power for pumps, heat and lights, and labor are fixed every month, so the plan turns on selling every head the greenhouse grows, every week. In the example, an Albuquerque aquaponics greenhouse starts with $84,000, ends its first year about $21,500 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $3,400 a month at full speed. Below is each part of the plan, the first year month by month, the startup budget, and a free template.

The short version

• Describe the farm in a paragraph: the greenhouse, the crops, who buys, the goals.
• Cost each sale: seed, fish feed share, packaging, the card fee.
• Plan sales by product: lettuce heads, herbs, salad mix, fish.
• Plants earn the money; fish are a second product.
• Power and labor are the fixed costs that decide a month.
• Sell every week: greens don't wait.
• TaroStack keeps each harvest as a lot, and each order's lots on record. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Mesa Verde Aquaponics, a made-up aquaponics farm in Albuquerque, New Mexico, writes:

Mesa Verde Aquaponics grows lettuce, basil and a salad mix in a 3,000-square-foot greenhouse fed by tilapia tanks, selling to two grocers, four restaurants and a Saturday market, and selling live tilapia to a local market. In its first year it aims to reach $11,300 of sales a month.

Part 2: what a sale costs

The lettuce is sold with its roots in a clamshell, which keeps it fresh for days longer. The tilapia's cost is nearly all feed. A soil-free farm without fish is in hydroponic farm business plan.

Part 3: the greenhouse, the fish and the customers

Lettuce is seeded every week so a harvest comes every week; the grocers take heads on Tuesdays and Fridays, the restaurants salad mix and basil twice a week. The tilapia are sold live to a local Asian market when they reach size, which keeps the farm out of fish processing. Water is tested daily: the fish's health is the plants' fertilizer.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $11,300 a month and keeps $8,663, 76.7%; lettuce heads bring $4,780 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $5,250 every month: greenhouse lease and power ($1,800), wages for a part-time grower ($2,500), fish feed for the brood tanks ($300), water testing and supplies ($150), insurance ($150), market fees ($150), and other costs ($200). Sales start at 20% of full speed:

The year's sales are $110,184, and the business ends it $21,468 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $6,850 of sales a month, in the fourth month. The lowest cash point, −$5,354 in month 3, is covered by the $12,000 of working cash with about $6,600 to spare. The system takes a few months to cycle and the fish to grow, so sales start at a fifth of full speed; once the beds are full, the harvest is weekly and steady.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $72,000 before working cash is earned back in about two years at full speed. Another indoor crop is in microgreens business plan, and a field version in market garden business plan.

Get the template

Download the aquaponics business plan workbook. Four sheets: your products, each with its price, variable cost and units a month at full speed; the first year, month by month, with sales ramping up, profit, cash, the first profitable month, the lowest cash point and whether the working cash covers it; your fixed costs; and the startup budget. It's an ordinary Excel file with no macros, and it works in Google Sheets, LibreOffice and Numbers.

Where this stops working

The plan uses one harvest a week. A pump that fails, a hot week that bolts the lettuce, or a restaurant that cuts its order leaves heads in the cooler, and nobody knows which day's lettuce went to which grocer.

How TaroStack does it

TaroStack keeps each harvest as a lot, counted where it's stored, and each order's lots on record.

Each harvest a lot. Each day's picking of greens goes in as a lot with its date, so every head on an order leads back to the field and the day.

Orders by customer. Market, restaurant and grocer orders are sales orders, with a picking list and the lots each one took.

Counts with no signal. The walk-in can be counted on a phone with no signal, and the oldest lots go out first by default.

Lots, sales orders and counts are on every plan, from $49 a month. The first 30 days are free, with no credit card. If you'd like a hand setting up, ask, and we'll do it with you.

Questions people also ask

How much does it cost to start an aquaponics farm?

The example budgets $84,000, including $12,000 of working cash; the greenhouse system is the biggest item.

Is an aquaponics farm profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $3,400 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does it cost to grow a head of lettuce in aquaponics?

In the example, about 61 cents with seed, the fish feed's share, the clamshell and the card fee, before the greenhouse's fixed costs.

Do you make money from the fish in aquaponics?

A little: in the example the tilapia bring about $375 a month of contribution against about $8,300 from the plants.