The Aquaponics Association

to get them connected with cross-industry suppliers. There are a lot of innovators in the space of horticulture, broadly speaking, and across different ranges of automation and technology. We’re trying to expand that horizon with new industry connections to boost the aquaponics farmers’ know-how. That’s been the primary focus in the last 18 months and now laying a roadmap going forward into the next decade.” BVM: What does the future look like for the aquaponics industry ? Venkat: “Three-fold complements are very important for the industry going forward. Organic certification is the game changer, when it comes to recognition of the product. Automation and data monitoring have seen some great innovations from leading tech-based companies, so it reduces the risk factor in getting into the industry. And just overall the size and scope of investments – getting angel investors toward food-based technology – has increased in the last five years, and aquaponics has greatly benefitted from that. Keeping all this in mind, the next ten years will be significant in ramping up scalability on aquaponics.” Filipowich: “I’d like to add this: Tilapia is a very hearty fish that is used most often for aquaponics. It’s very good at converting feed into protein. But it doesn’t have very good market value. Now the bigger farms are going for higher market value varieties. Superior Fresh, for example – the largest aquaponics farm in the U.S.– is doing sushi-grade salmon. With several new design iterations and innovations in Aquaponics, fish like Hybrid Striped Bass, Arctic Char, Barramundi, and Sturgeon are soon entering the market scene through Aquaponics. If you’re able to get even more revenue from your fish like some of these large farms are doing, that could also be a game changer on the commercial front for the future.”