- Sharat Industries is India’s oldest integrated shrimp company, built from a single entrepreneur’s bet on a new species that revived an entire industry. Incorporated as Sharat Sea Foods and initiating farm operations in 1990, it transformed after a devastating virus outbreak by building its own feed mill and processing plant, then commercialised the Vannamei shrimp that its founder had introduced to Indian waters. The recurring approach is vertical integration on a single coastal campus - hatchery, feed, farm and plant within five kilometres of each other - so the company controls quality from seedling to shipment and captures margin at every step.
Business segments
Two engines feed one export machine - a shrimp feed business that supplies its own farms and outside growers, and a processing plant that freezes and ships everything the company can source, with a captive farm acting as the quality anchor between them.
1. Shrimp feed: the nutrition engine that locks in supply
A captive mill making 20,000-plus tonnes of feed a year supplies the company’s own ponds and a network of external farmers, cutting the single biggest farm cost while pulling shrimp back into the processing plant.
- Feed is half the farm cost - raw material alone represents roughly 50% of what it costs to grow a crop, so making feed in-house rather than buying it from a third party directly improves margins on every tonne of company-farmed shrimp.
- A buyback loop that feeds the plant - external farmers who buy the company’s feed can sell their harvest back to the processing division under a material-buyback arrangement, which gives the plant access to more shrimp without owning more ponds.
- R&D is chasing cheaper protein - pilot projects are already testing insect protein as a substitute for fish meal, aiming to lower the cost of the single most expensive ingredient while keeping the feed nutritionally effective.
2. Shrimp processing and export: the revenue engine that reaches 25-plus countries
A 7,500-tonne-capacity freezing plant turns raw shrimp into over 17 product forms for buyers across Russia, the US, China and Europe, generating roughly two-thirds to 80% of the company’s revenue.
- Russia is the anchor market - the company is among the top three Indian exporters of shrimp to Russia by volume and holds one of the few Russia-approved processing licences in the country, a regulatory moat that limits competition for that demand.
- Three ways to fill the plant - shrimp comes from the company’s own farm, from 55-plus contract farmers who get seed, feed and technical support, and from merchant-export job work done for other processors, so utilisation stays high even when harvests fluctuate.
- Value-added products lift the mix - while most output is raw frozen shrimp in forms like head-on shell-on and peeled deveined tail-off, cooked and blanched lines contributed 5% of volumes in FY25, and a new “PD - Curl Control” product was added in early 2026.
- Certifications open doors - the plant carries BRC A-grade, BAP 4-star, EU approval, FDA registration and FSSC 22000, among others, which means it can ship to the most demanding regulators and switch between geographies as demand shifts.
- Domestic sales are just beginning - the company started supplying raw frozen shrimp to Zomato Hyperpure in early 2026 and plans to build a domestic frozen-shrimp business through the HoReCa (hotel, restaurant and catering) channel first, then retail.
3. Own farming: the quality anchor and disease-fighting laboratory
A 500-acre coastal farm with 2,000 tonnes of annual capacity produces antibiotic-free shrimp that sets the quality standard for the processing plant, while doubling as a test bed for biosecurity and feeding trials.
- Seawater on tap - the farm sits directly on the Bay of Bengal with interlocking canals that deliver uninterrupted seawater, plus bore wells to fine-tune salinity, so water parameters stay optimal without relying on external sources.
- Running lean to stay safe - the farm operated at roughly 50% of capacity in FY25, a deliberate choice to manage disease risk rather than chase volume, after heavy capital investment in infrastructure designed to reduce shrimp mortality.
- The plant’s captive supply - back-to-back crops yielded about 800 tonnes, covering roughly 15% of the processing plant’s raw-material needs, which gives the export business a guaranteed base load of fully traceable, in-house shrimp.
Group structure and partners
The company runs as a single integrated operation, with a joint-venture farm vehicle and a promoter family that has steered the business since its trawler-licence days.
- One reportable segment - despite operating feed, farm and processing divisions, the company reports as a single integrated aquaculture business, reflecting how tightly the pieces depend on one another.
- A joint-venture farm next door - United Aquatech Private Limited, a special-purpose vehicle in Nellore, is 49%-owned by Sharat Industries and was set up in 2022 with UAL Biotech to expand farming capacity and productivity.
- Founder-led board - Mr. Prasad Reddy Sabbella, who introduced Vannamei shrimp to India, serves as Managing Director alongside his son Mr. Sharat Reddy Sabbella as Executive Director, with independent directors rounding out the board.
- Listed, with a recent rights issue - the company’s shares trade on the BSE, and a rights issue in mid-2024 raised fresh capital by offering shares at ₹31 apiece in a 13-for-20 ratio to existing shareholders.