Economically viable aquaponics? Identifying the gap between potential and current uncertainties

Abstract

Aquaponics, which integrates hydroponic farming and aquaculture, has the potential for sustainably producing high-quality food, but has yet to achieve commercial success. In recent years, however, commercial-scale aquaponics has received considerable attention from the scientific community, with the current literature covering many aspects of aquaponic production. We reviewed this literature and classified the specific areas covered by each paper and its contribution to either cost reduction or benefit enhancement. The literature regarding the economic benefits of aquaponics was summarised, and despite contradicting views of current profitability, there is a consensus that (i) larger systems are economically superior to smaller ones; (ii) profitability is sensitive to retail prices; and (iii) commercial aquaponics are more profitable through improved business plans. This review provides a quantitative scientific analysis of the bioeconomics and potential of commercial aquaponics, useful for both researchers and practitioners. We argue for greater focus on three understudied aspects that could each be a 'game changer' for commercial aquaponics. These include the following: (i) grower considerations such as financial planning and risk management that affect potential growers' initial engagement in aquaponics; (ii) consumer perception of aquaponic products including the willingness to pay more for its added value; and (iii) the economic value of the environmental benefits of aquaponic systems and ways to internalise them for profit. Further study of each of these aspects, along with the ongoing improvement of production systems, will support the establishment of large-scale aquaponics as an economically sustainable industry.

Exploring economic and legal barriers to commercial aquaponics in the EU through the lens of the UK and policy proposals to address them

“…Not only does it have the potential to prevent soil erosion and nutrient loss, it also can be deployed in urban environments to create local jobs growing healthy produce. Greenfeld et al (2019) surmise that larger systems, higher retail prices, and improved business plans lead to improved profitability for commercial aquaponics projects. These universal factors affect the profitability of commercial aquaponics worldwide.…”

“…Once educated, most consumers appear likely to accept crops produced via aquaponics as organic (Gilmour et al 2019). These are promising early findings, but the marketing of aquaponic products is addressed in very few studies (Greenfeld et al 2019).…”

Emergy synthesis for aquaculture: A review on its constraints and potentials

“…2018; Greenfeld et al . 2018), aquaponics is often considered as a tool for education and social inclusion (König et al . 2018).…”

“…As an example of an integrated system in aquaculture, 'aquaponics' that is a combination of intensive aquaculture with soilless plant production (hydroponics) has been recognized as being environmentally friendly. Although using resources effectively (Pinho et al 2017;Palm et al 2018) and presenting potential economic results when applied commercially (Quagrainie et al 2018;Greenfeld et al 2018), aquaponics is often considered as a tool for education and social inclusion (K€ onig et al 2018). Since we did not find any type of emergy synthesis of aquaponic production in the scientific literature, efforts on assessing its sustainability are needed.…”

Biocontrol of Phytopathogens under Aquaponics Systems

“…Aquaponics has been compared with aquaculture [2,7,8] and hydroponic [9][10][11][12] technologies in terms of production and profitability. Up to now, the research on aquaponics has been focused on sustainability [13][14][15], economic optimization [16][17][18], functional setup [19,20], stocking density [21,22], cultivation media [23,24], water recirculation [25,26], food safety [9,27], fish-plant pathogens [6,28] and beneficial microorganisms [29,30].…”