The northern Philippines sit in warm water with year-round growing conditions and close to some of the largest seafood markets in Asia. For species that need heat, that is a starting position no European location can match.
What we want to build is a farm that pays for itself and leaves the region better off than it found it. That means fish raised locally instead of imported frozen, work for people on the island, and a supply chain that does not depend on what a boat happens to catch.
It also means building in a way the surrounding water can carry. Reef systems are unforgiving, and a closed land-based farm is one of the few ways to produce at scale next to one without damaging it.
Three things separate a modern land-based farm from a conventional one. None of them is magic, all of them are engineering.
The first is that every tank runs on its own water loop. A problem in one tank stays in that tank, which in a shared system is exactly what does not happen. Separate loops also let us hold different species at different temperatures and salinities in the same building.
The second is energy and water. In the tropics the expensive part is not heating, it is cooling, pumping and treating. The design keeps both down by recirculating almost everything and by generating as much power on the property as the roof area allows.
The third is that the project should be useful beyond our own fence. There is very little land-based capacity in the region. Whatever works here is worth passing on to local producers rather than keeping to ourselves.
ECOMAR TNC is more than an aquaculture enterprise; it is a leader in innovation and environmental stewardship. Join us as we redefine aquaculture in the Philippines, fostering a future where sustainability and productivity go hand in hand.
ECOMAR TNC is proud to pioneer sustainable aquaculture in the Philippines, offering an exceptional array of fish species tailored to meet diverse market preferences and ecological needs. Our sophisticated selection guarantees premium quality and variety, catering to both local and international demands.
Huso huso
Huso dauricus
Huso huso × Acipenser ruthenus
Acipenser stellatus
Salvelinus alpinus
Paralichthys olivaceus
Hucho taimen
Thymallus thymallus
Salmo salar sebago
Oncorhynchus masou
Oncorhynchus mykiss
Salmo trutta
Epinephelus coioides
Brachymystax lenok
Salvelinus umbla
Coregonus muksun
Stenodus nelma
Coregonus migratorius
Coregonus lavaretus
Lates calcarifer
Sander lucioperca
Clarias gariepinus
Anguilla anguilla
Mugil cephalus
Mullus surmuletus
Euthynnus affinis
Katsuwonus pelamis
Epinephelus morio
Caranx latus
Homarus spp.
Scylla spp.
Penaeus monodon
Cherax quadricarinatus
Oyster
Oyster
Oyster
Oyster
Oyster
Oyster
Oyster
Oyster
Oyster
Oyster
A farm that sells only whole fresh fish leaves most of its margin on the table. The plant is planned to cover the full range of processing, so that every part of the harvest finds a buyer.
That means chilling and freezing for the fresh trade, salting, drying, smoking, canning and preserves for the shelf, and minced products from the trimmings. What is left becomes fish oil and fish meal rather than waste.
Alongside that come fillets and portions for kitchens and caterers, and a deep-frozen line for customers who need a long shelf life. In a tropical climate the cold chain is not a detail, it is the product.
Beyond the cans there is the fresh and processed range: fillets, portions, sausages and rolls. Some of it is an ingredient for a kitchen, some of it is ready to eat.
And there is the deep-frozen line for customers who need a long shelf life: steaks, fillets on the skin and whole gutted fish. In a tropical climate, freezing straight after processing is what keeps the quality in.
The location is planned on the coast, with access to seawater and to a port. Being close to the water matters less for the fish, which live in treated water anyway, than for logistics: intake, discharge control and getting the product away quickly.
The buildings are planned as insulated modules rather than open ponds. That is what allows stable temperatures despite the tropical heat, keeps the stock separated from wild fish and disease, and lets the farm produce at the same rate through the wet and dry seasons alike.
The recirculation system is laid out as several halls, each holding a number of large tanks. Water is treated and returned to the loop rather than discharged, which is what protects the reef systems next to it. These are planning figures and will be confirmed as the engineering progresses.
Feed is the single largest running cost of any fish farm, usually close to half of it. Importing it into an island location adds freight and a currency risk on top.
So the plan includes producing feed at the farm. Extrusion is well understood technology, the raw materials are regionally available, and a mill next to the tanks means the feed is fresh and the recipe can be adjusted to what the fish actually need at each stage rather than to what a supplier happens to ship.
How much of our own demand we cover, and how quickly, will follow from the first production cycles.
The water supply is designed as a closed circuit, built from components that are already in service at established farms rather than from prototypes.
Fry are planned to arrive in several separate batches a year. Spreading the intake keeps every stage of the farm working at a steady rate instead of running flat out for a few months and half empty for the rest.
The recirculation plant itself is modular and compact, which makes it possible to produce a lot of fish on a small footprint and to add capacity module by module rather than in one jump. On an island, where every component has to be shipped in, that matters more than usual.
Inside, the facility is divided into zones that do not mix: broodstock, growing, and processing, each with its own access rules and hygiene regime.
An island has seawater and not much else. Fresh water for the freshwater stages, for processing and for cleaning has to be produced, and how efficiently that is done decides a large part of the running cost.
The working design uses reverse osmosis, the established method, with energy recovery on the high pressure side. Alongside it we are testing a resonance-based treatment approach intended to cut the energy needed per cubic metre. It is a promising line of work and it is not yet proven at production scale. We will describe it here in detail once we have measured results from our own plant. Until then the conventional process remains the basis of the design, and nothing in the production plan depends on the new method working.
A recirculating system costs more to build than a net pen and more to run than a pond. In this setting it earns that back several times over.
Fish grow faster because temperature, oxygen and water chemistry stay where they should be instead of following the season. The same control allows high stocking densities, and the final figures will follow from our own trials. Output is predictable, which matters when a buyer wants the same quantity every week of the year. And the farm uses a fraction of the water and space an open system needs for the same tonnage.
The decisive reason here is different though. A closed system does not release nutrients, medication or escaped fish into the surrounding water. Next to a coral reef that is not a nice-to-have, it is the condition for being allowed to build at all.
Fish waste is a problem in one system and a fertiliser in another. Water leaving the tanks carries the nitrogen and phosphorus that plants need, so it goes into growing beds instead of into a treatment plant. The plants take up the nutrients, the water comes back cleaner, and the same volume does two jobs.
What grows there is planned as salad, herbs and tropical vegetables with a short cycle and a local market. On an island where fresh produce is often shipped in, that is worth more than the numbers suggest.
ECOMAR TNC explores advanced energy solutions like Toshiba's H2One™ system to enhance sustainable operations and address the Philippines' growing energy demands. This innovative hydrogen energy supply system integrates renewable energy to produce CO₂-free electricity and hot water, supporting both operational efficiency and environmental goals.
Operational in Japan since 2015, H2One™ has demonstrated its effectiveness in:
The Philippines faces growing energy demands alongside environmental sustainability challenges. H2One™ presents an opportunity to align with national goals for renewable energy integration by:
Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions Corporation aims to expand H2One™ solutions globally, including across Southeast Asia. By adopting this technology, ECOMAR TNC positions itself at the forefront of innovation, promoting clean energy adoption and setting a benchmark for environmentally responsible aquaculture practices.
ECOMAR is evaluating hydrogen-based generation and storage as part of the energy concept for its facilities, in dialogue with Toshiba Energy Systems & Solutions. The configuration, the share of demand it would cover and the role of a grid connection as a fallback will follow from the engineering study.
Part of the process technology in the plan comes from work by Prof. Khachatryan on hydrogen-based water and feed treatment. We hold access to these methods and intend to use them, and it is only fair to say plainly which results come from laboratory and pilot work and still have to be confirmed at our own scale.
The first method treats and activates the water used in the hatchery. In trials it produced noticeably faster growth in fry and better survival than the sixty to seventy percent that is normal in conventional hatchery practice. The reported factor is between one and a half and two times the usual growth rate. We will publish our own figures once we have a full production cycle behind us.
The second is a feed additive that releases hydride ions in water, reported to improve weight gain, egg production and disease resistance. Again, trial results, not yet ours.
The third concerns processing. Fish meat is treated in an electrochemically activated mineral solution, which disinfects it and extends shelf life without chemical preservatives. In a tropical climate that is worth testing carefully. Whether we adopt it across the range depends on our own results and on Philippine and export food law.
The plant is planned around equipment that is standard in the industry, for the simple reason that spare parts and trained staff are easier to find that way, and on an island that argument counts double.
Cutting and filleting run on Marel lines, which give a higher yield from each fish than hand work and hold the portions within the tolerances buyers specify. Smoking and curing run on modern lines where the result is the same from the first batch of the day to the last. Packing and cold storage sit in the same building, so the fish never leaves the cold chain between the tank and the container.
Cans are a bigger cost item in fish processing than most people expect, and shipping empty cans to an island is close to shipping air. The plan is to produce them at the farm on Alfons Haar equipment.
The format is a two-piece drawn and redrawn can in 0.14 mm DR8 material, among the thinnest on the market. Thinner walls mean roughly a fifth less steel per can, and the equipment supplier puts the annual saving per line in the seven-figure range. That figure comes from the supplier and assumes a line running at full capacity, so treat it as an upper bound until our own line has run for a year.
Sidewall and base geometry are designed to keep the can rigid despite the thinner material.
Alongside the land-based farm we are looking at enclosed floating units of the kind built by Hauge Aqua Solutions. The idea is a fully closed egg-shaped pen rather than an open net cage: water is drawn from depth, the fish are separated from the surrounding sea, and waste is collected rather than released.
The attraction in a reef environment is obvious. A closed pen sharply reduces parasite exposure, makes escapes far less likely, and keeps organic load out of the water. The manufacturer states a capacity in the order of a thousand tonnes per unit.
Whether such units are appropriate here is a separate question, and not one we intend to answer on a website. Any installation in Philippine coastal waters would need its own environmental assessment and the agreement of the authorities. Until that exists, this is an option under review, not a plan.
A coastal area of this size is difficult to watch from the ground. Fences and cameras cover the perimeter, but not the roofs, the water intake or the parts of the plot still under construction.
That is the job we intend to give to drones. A patrol drone flies a fixed route on a schedule, day and night, and does not get tired or distracted. It is not a replacement for the people on the ground. It is what lets a small team keep watch over a large area.
The first phase goes into building. The facility has to be finished and the first production cycles started, and in parallel we need a route to market, both on the islands and towards the regional export buyers.
After that the plan is to take the farm to full capacity and to move up the value chain, with processed and canned products rather than raw fish.
The last stage is about the next species and about reaching customers directly. How fast that goes will follow from what the farm actually produces, not from a timetable written before the first fish is in the tank.
ECOMAR is building a land-based fish farm in the northern Philippines, and we are open about the fact that it is still a project rather than a running plant. If that interests you, talk to us early rather than late.
Buyers get a straight answer on what we can deliver and when. Investors get the current documentation together with the assumptions behind it, so the figures can be judged rather than believed. And anyone who simply wants to understand how a closed system works is welcome to ask.