Oyster Farm Business Plan: Restaurants, Dealers and the Dock

An oyster farm grows seed into market oysters on a lease over two or three years, and sells them by the piece. An oyster costs pennies in seed; the gear, the boat and the work of tumbling, sorting and moving bags are the rest. Selling to a dealer is simplest; selling to restaurants and from a farm stand earns more, but shellfish can only be sold by a certified shellfish shipper, with a tag on every bag giving where and when it was harvested. The plan turns on the lease, the gear and a growing season. In the example, a Maine oyster farm starts with $123,500, ends its first year about $88,300 ahead before the owner's pay, and makes about $12,300 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 lease, the oysters, who buys, the goals.
• Cost each oyster: seed, gear and labor, tagging and delivery.
• Plan sales by product: restaurants, a dealer, the farm stand, tours.
• Selling direct takes a certified shellfish shipper license.
• Every bag gets a tag: where and when harvested.
• Oysters take two to three years from seed: plan the first years.
• TaroStack keeps each harvest as a lot, with its tag, and each order's lots on record. More below.

Part 1: the business description

Damariscotta Ledge Oysters, a made-up oyster farm in the Damariscotta River, Maine, writes:

Damariscotta Ledge Oysters farms a two-acre lease on the Damariscotta River, selling oysters to restaurants in Portland and Boston, to a shellfish dealer, by the dozen at a farm stand on its dock, and on boat tours of the farm. Bought with oysters already growing on the lease, it aims to reach $28,200 of sales in a season month.

Part 2: what an oyster costs

The tour's cost includes the boat's fuel and the oysters tasted on board. Shellfish sold over a counter, with its tags kept, is in fish market business plan.

Part 3: the lease, the season and the rules

Oysters grow in floating bags, flipped and tumbled through the summer and sorted by size. Harvest runs spring to late fall; in summer, harvested oysters are iced on the boat and cooled within the time the state's Vibrio rules set. The farm holds a certified shellfish shipper license, which lets it sell to restaurants and at the stand; every bag carries a tag with the lease, the harvest date and the shipper number, and buyers keep the tags 90 days. How a processor plans for seafood hazards is in seafood haccp plan.

Part 4: what each product earns

At full speed the business sells $28,200 a month and keeps $17,498, 62%; restaurant oysters bring $6,000 of it.

Part 5: the first year, month by month

Fixed costs are $5,200 every month: crew wages ($3,000), boat fuel and upkeep ($600), gear upkeep ($500), insurance ($400), cooler power ($150), testing and licenses ($150), lease fees ($100), and other costs ($300). Sales start at 35% of full speed:

The year's sales are $242,811, and the business ends it $88,265 ahead, before the owner's pay. It breaks even at about $8,380 of sales a month, in the first month. The lowest cash point, $924 in month 1, never goes below zero. The plan treats every month like a season month once it's built up; harvest runs spring to late fall, so a real year has a winter of fixed costs and gear work.

Part 6: the startup budget

The $93,500 before working cash is earned back in about 8 months at full speed. A pond crop on land is in catfish farm business plan, and where the oysters came from on a sign in country of origin labeling requirements.

Get the template

Download the oyster farm 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 count. A summer closure after heavy rain, a gear loss in a storm, and restaurants that cut orders in the off-season change the year, and every tag has to match the bag it went out on.

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 oysters goes in as a lot with its date, so every bag 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 cooler 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 oyster farm?

The example budgets $123,500, including $30,000 of working cash; the gear is the biggest item.

Is an oyster farm profitable?

It can be: the example makes about $12,300 a month at full speed before the owner's pay, and ends its first year ahead.

How much does it cost to grow an oyster?

In the example, about 30 cents to a dealer: a nickel of seed and about a quarter of gear and labor over two years.

Do you need a license to sell oysters?

To sell to restaurants or the public, a certified shellfish shipper license from the state, with a tag on every bag.