Shrimp nursery feed: particle size and water stability before price
Shrimp nursery feeds — crumbles and micro-pellets for post-larvae and nursery stages — are bought on particle-size distribution, water stability and attractant quality. Volumes are small next to grow-out, so documentation, shelf life and delivery reliability drive the commercial decision.
Who buys at this stage
- Hatcheries and nursery operators buying micro-diets in regular small lots
- Vannamei farms running a nursery phase before pond stocking
- Buyers importing specialist micro-diets while sourcing grow-out feed locally
Form and packaging
- Particle-size range with the acceptable distribution stated
- Water stability expressed in minutes and how it will be verified
- Small sealed packs; production date and shelf life on every unit
Commercial feed types
Crumbles and micro-pellets
Graded particle sizes stepped up with the animal; state the size range required.
Micro-bound / micro-encapsulated diets
Where the nursery protocol calls for them, specified with their own documentation.
What the RFQ must specify
- Post-larvae stocked per cycle and nursery duration
- Particle-size steps required through the nursery
- Water stability requirement
- Quantity per shipment and committed annual volume
- Delivery point, port and preferred Incoterm
- Delivery schedule and acceptable lead time
- Packaging and pallet or bulk handling constraints
- Certifications and documents required with each shipment
- Currency, price basis and how long the price must hold
What moves the cost
- Marine ingredient and attractant pricing
- Micro-processing cost at the mill
- Import freight, duties and cold-chain or humidity handling
- Shelf life, which caps order size
Storage and shelf life
- Order in small, frequent lots — shelf life limits stockholding
- Store sealed, cool and dry; humidity destroys micro-diets fast
- Rotate strictly by production date
Certifications and documents to ask for
- GMP+ B1 / FAMI-QS or an equivalent feed safety scheme
- HACCP plan and the mill's own quality manual
- Certificate of analysis per batch (proximate analysis, moisture)
- Mycotoxin, salmonella and heavy-metal testing regime
- Traceability of raw materials and batch numbering
- Non-GMO, halal or organic certification where your market requires it
- Country-specific feed registration and import documentation
Supplier evaluation checklist
- Installed capacity against your monthly tonnage, not just the annual total
- Evidence of supplying the same stage and pellet form commercially
- Batch consistency record and how out-of-spec batches are handled
- Lead time from order to delivery, and behaviour during raw-material volatility
- Price basis: fixed, indexed to a named raw material, or reviewed periodically
- Delivery capability to your point, Incoterm and vehicle or vessel constraints
- Technical support available on-site and the escalation route when results slip
Worked commercial example
Illustrative arithmetic on the inputs shown — not a benchmark, a price or a performance promise. Replace every figure with your own.
- · 2,000,000 post-larvae into nursery, 25 days
- · Nursery feed use assumed at 0.35 kg per 1,000 PL per day
- · Delivered micro-diet price 1,900 per tonne (your own figure)
- → Feed for the nursery phase ≈ 17.5 t
- → Feed cost for the phase ≈ 33,250
- → Order in weekly lots of ≈ 5 t to stay inside shelf life
Size the volume first
Other shrimp stages
Questions buyers ask
What must a shrimp nursery feed RFQ state?
Why is water stability so important?
Does FeedMatch guarantee survival or FCR?
How the request is handled
You submit the requirement, a person at FeedMatch reviews it, and only then are qualified suppliers approached on your behalf. Offers come back normalised to the same delivered basis so they can actually be compared. No supplier receives your details automatically and no introduction happens without that review.
Submit a feed project requestFeedMatch Group is an independent, supplier-neutral procurement platform. We are not a feed manufacturer, trader, nutritionist, veterinarian or lender, and we do not guarantee prices, supply, FCR or animal performance. Figures on this page are indicative commercial planning ranges, not specifications. Every requirement is reviewed by a person before any supplier is approached, and no supplier receives your details automatically. Last reviewed 16 September 2026.