Good Tôm

"When are you stocking next?" We stock ~every month. It's so fun. Look at this beautiful, tiny shrimp swimming around in their new home. From 3mg per piece, to >30g, a new cycle begins. 🤞🦐 #shrimp #aquaculture #shrimpfarming

There is a LOT of evidence out there, available and distributed to farmers. One thing that we'd like to see emphasized more - in shrimp farming workshops, training sessions, presentations, etc. - is that not all evidence is equal. There is a hierarchy. You can refer to our diagram, but there are many versions of this if you search for "evidence hierarchy", some with tens of layers. Your neighbour experiencing different results does not contradict the results of a meta analysis! At Good Tôm, we try our best to have a science-based approach to farming, and understanding the quality / strength of the evidence we are presented with is an important step in this process.

Why shrimp? This is the question that we get asked the most. Here are 3 reasons. 📈 Huge market: high volumes (e.g., shrimp is #1 most consumed seafood in the USA) + good prices (vs. other tropical species). This big ($40B+), growing market means no demand risk for the farmer. 🔬 Short production cycles: shrimp only need 3-4 months to grow. This has two advantages: we can learn fast by doing tens of trials every year; working capital requirements are manageable. 🦐 High complexity: shrimp are easy to kill, making them a difficult species to produce. However, we like a challenge! Lots of problems to solve = lots of opportunities for a new player to differentiate itself. There are other reasons why we're optimistic about shrimp. Feel free to get in touch if you want to discuss. (Picture: some of our past shrimp, raw and cooked, to answer the question "why is your shrimp grey and not orange?" 😄)

We're #hiring a new Shrimp farming technician in Bac Liêu. Apply today or share this post with your network.

There are SO many shrimp farms in the Mekong Delta, Vietnam. I often use Google Maps, so I am constantly reminded of this (scary) fact. It comes with the typical advantages of a cluster - any imagineable farming input is available within a 15 minute drive, ease of access to talent, dealers, labs, etc. However, it also comes with a major risk - waterborne diseases. 🦠 We all use the same water source, the nearby sea. And we use it both as a water input, and as a.. wastewater destination. If 1 farmer has a disease, somewhere, it will be present in the water of hundreds of nearby farmers. We should all do better at treating our wastewater before discharge, to protect the sea but also the farming community. This also applies to Good Tôm. We're working on an exciting project that uses fish, plants, algae, and chemicals to minimise water pollution. More on this in the new year. Video: coastline next to our R&D Farm in Bac Lieu. You can pick almost any place in the Mekong Delta (within 5km of the sea) and it will look the same.

It was great being in Singapore for a couple days for the Singapore International Agri-Food Week. Our chief farmer Dragos Mircea joined the AgriFood Expo, Summit, and Hatch Blue fish drinks. Despite the current industry challenges (e.g. waterborne diseases), we're more bullish than ever - the #blueeconomy ecosystem will clearly thrive once all the innovation that is brewing will hit the mass market. To all those encountered - please get in touch if you want to resume our conversations. Special thanks to Fred Puckle Hobbs, Denny Leonardo, and Benedict Tan 陈勇安 for inviting us - look forward to seeing you again!

Some reflections on shrimp farming risk. 🦐 Our chief farmer, Dragos Mircea, shared last week how a decent-sized shrimp farmer has the responsibility to keep million(s) of animals alive. This is, indeed, the #1 daily concern of thousands of farmers across the region, including Good Tôm. So, the first logical response would be - let's minimise the (high) risk of shrimp dying. Clearly, we don't want to "gamble" with so much cash and so many lives? It's bad business. Or is it? The intuition is right, but it's not that simple. Figuring out the optimal risk mitigation strategy is one of the most complex aspects of this business. Some considerations: 1. Some risk will always be there. It's not feasible to completely eliminate it. We're dealing with live animals, not machinery. 2. Risk reduction is not free. It requires more work, more expensive inputs/equipment/tech, and/or more complex processes - all these cost resources. 3. Adopting ALL available risk mitigation interventions = very consistent outcomes, very consistent losses. Minimising the risk of shrimp dying at all costs is loss-making at most market prices. 🎲 Shrimp farmers are often criticised for being gamblers, especially in Vietnam. If you work in this sector, you'll hear this a lot. In general, we agree that farmers take on too much risk - we're trying our best to help; however, we cannot judge, as farmers often don't have much of a choice: 1. They have to "gamble", to an extent, to have a chance at profit, as explained above. This is particularly true for small, independent farmers who have limited access to capital for farm upgrades and quality inputs, no bargaining power, no options to move somewhere else, etc. 2. Prioritising risk mitigation interventions (e.g. based on their RoI) is complicated, except for the obvious ones, which are common practice. Ideally, one would build different scenarios, estimate probabilities + expected profit / loss per scenario, etc. A lot of maths and not a lot of good data to use. 3. Generally, no one else is willing to share the risk with the farmer. If you want to discuss about shrimp farming risk management, please get in touch. Image: ChatGPT

These are the mangrove forests behind our R&D farm in Bac Lieu. They have several benefits: - For the local communities: they help prevent coastal erosion and severe water events, such as storms and floodings - For the planet: they store massive amounts of CO2 - some sources estimate they are 4 times more effective at CO2 sequestration than traditional land forests - For the wildlife: hundreds of species of birds and aquatic creates live here - For the aqua farmers: they act as a natural water filter, removing N and P compounds from the water, as well as suspended solids Whilst deforestation was a huge problem in the past, Vietnam has successfully restored a lot of these forests over the last decade, increasing its overall mangrove area; this is wonderful to see. At Good Tôm we commit to never harming even a single mangrove tree. We see them as sacred. Generally, we see intensive farming as environmentally responsible - a modern farm can produce 10-20 times more shrimp per hectare vs. a traditional farm. The efficiency of intensive aquaculture systems means the national output / export levels can be increased, all whilst releasing land back to mangrove restoration projects. Of course, intensification must be done RESPONSIBLY, otherwise it creates its own set of issues.

Good article from our friend Denny Leonardo We hope that Vietnamese shrimp farming stakeholders give it a read. It's a shame that - after leading the way with adopting nursery systems - some farmers in Vietnam have stopped using them in order to simplify operations. Each farm is different, but in our view, nurseries are generally worth it. The risk is high enough already, as we are seeing right now with the latest "EHP season".

A couple of weeks ago we had the pleasure of spending some time in Europe, via our representative Dragos Mircea First stop - Lille (France), where we attended Phileo International Aquaculture Seminar 2024 and visited the company's wonderful facilities. Whilst we had some debates as a group around the art vs. science of farming, it was clear to us that there is need for science-based and cost-effective solutions to improve shrimp health. This is particularly relevant in super-intensive settings, where shrimp survival is - by far - the biggest driver of a cycle's profitability, or lack of. Dragos delivered a presentation on the challenges faced by farmers in Vietnam (as seen by someone who spontaneously entered the sector 2 years ago) and on a potential path forward. Thank you Alban Caratis and Jean-Benoît Darodes de Tailly for organising and inviting us. Second stop - Utrecht (Netherlands), where we attended #GSF2024. It was great to take a step back and reflect on the industry as a whole, across geographies and along the value chain. We heard from industry leaders about driving shrimp demand, sustainable production practices, tech innovations from all corners of the world, macroeconomic trends that affect the sector, consolidation and M&A, investing, etc. Meeting a great variety of suppliers, fellow farmers, shrimp buyers, financeers, and other stakeholders was a blast and the highlight of the trip. #shrimpfarming #shrimp #aquaculture #sustainability