Ever realized what it takes to get that delicious shrimp on your plate? It’s in fact quite a lot. From obtaining qualitative post larvae, towards carefully releasing them in the pond, harvest, processing, quality checks and logistics. And than we did not even include the numerous checks throughout the entire supply chain including water monitoring.

Briefly the entire “route” of a farmed shrimp, shrimp from aquaculture, looks as following:

1. 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗹𝗮𝗿𝘃𝗮𝗲
Shrimps from aquaculture are farmed in ponds. Usually in warm countries such as India, Indonesia, Vietnam, Bangladesh and Ecuador. First of all the post larvae (very young shrimps), are carefully released in a so-called nursery pond. In this smaller pond, which is connected to the main pond, they are able to adapt to the environment before they are released in the larger pond.

2. 𝗛𝗮𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘀𝘁
Once the shrimps have reached a certain size, they are harvested. Some farmers use nets. Other farmers use specific cages.

3. 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗰𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗻𝗴
Right after harvest, the shrimps are transported to a processing plant, to a factory. Before the processing starts, the shrimps are being checked on their quality . After this check point, they are cleaned and sorted by size. Depending on their commercial format (HOSO, HLSO, PD, tail-on, raw, cooked), the relevant steps for each specific format continue. Once these steps are finished, the shrimps are being frozen and packed.

4. 𝗙𝗶𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗾𝘂𝗮𝗹𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗰𝗵𝗲𝗰𝗸
Eventually a final quality check takes place. This happens right before the cartons are loaded into a container.

5. 𝗟𝗼𝗴𝗶𝘀𝘁𝗶𝗰𝘀
Obviously, with a frozen product such as shrimps, it concerns cold logistics. A temperature logger constantly tracks the temperature of the refrigerated container. Depending on the origin and destination, shipment takes 4 to 6 weeks. At the final destination, a truck is ready to load the container and bring it to the customer.

17.11.2025