20 T/H Aqua Feed Mill Plant in Myanmar

RICHI MACHINERY

The Product Mix Changed the Expansion Plan

The inquiry arrived in March 2024 from a medium-sized agribusiness in Yangon. Its existing 3–5 T/H line could mix feed, but steam conditioning was inconsistent and it could not support the water stability or expansion control required for a larger aquafeed business. Seasonal moisture variation in grain made those limitations more visible during the monsoon period. That variability became a design input rather than a commissioning issue.

The agreed target was 20 T/H with three-shift operation, but the important detail was the product split: floating fish feed would carry most of the annual tonnage, while a separate sinking-pellet route would serve shrimp and other formulations. That decision required extrusion and conventional pelleting to coexist without forcing both products through the same finishing equipment.

Engineering work therefore started with incoming moisture, starch sources, protein meals, oil addition and storage turnover. In a large Myanmar aquafeed plant, those variables determine whether the factory can maintain particle size, steam response and finished-feed consistency through the wet season.

RICHI MACHINERY

Myanmar Conditions Put Moisture Control Ahead of Nameplate Capacity

For this customer, local production made sense because the Yangon and Ayeyarwady aquaculture market could absorb both floating and sinking feeds, while the business already had access to regional grain, oilseed meals and marine protein ingredients. The project was sized for a commercial customer base rather than a single farm.

The more difficult country-specific issue was climate. Covered unloading, separate storage, supplier-lot moisture checks and controlled inventory turnover were treated as production equipment in their own right. Wet grain cannot be “fixed” later by simply adding more steam at the pellet mill or increasing dryer temperature after extrusion.

That is why the Myanmar floating fish feed plant and sinking-feed route share a disciplined raw-material system. The plant can accept several starch and protein sources, but every batch still has to enter grinding and conditioning within a workable moisture range. Moisture management is treated as process control—not as a problem to solve after pelleting.

RICHI MACHINERY

110,000 Tons Floating 40,000 Tons Sinking

The 20 T/H aquaculture feed plant in Myanmar is divided by finished-feed behavior rather than by animal name alone:

Floating feed depends on controlled extrusion, expansion and post-extrusion drying; sinking pellets depend more on fine grinding, conditioning, die specification and water stability. Both routes require accurate batching and a stable starch-protein matrix, but their critical control points are different. That is why the factory uses separate downstream sections instead of one universal finishing line.

RICHI MACHINERY

The Ingredient List Closes Exactly at 150,000 T/Y

The annual ingredient plan is unusually useful because it closes exactly against finished-feed output. The plant uses multiple grains and protein meals so purchasing can respond to availability and formula cost without changing the basic process route.

The table below is the annual procurement basis used for storage, batching and material-flow planning:

Wet-season grain remains the main handling risk. Corn and sorghum lots can arrive above the preferred moisture window, so receiving staff segregate wetter material and use covered pre-storage or natural moisture reduction before it enters long-term bins and grinding. The cooler is not treated as a raw-grain dryer; moisture has to be managed before the feed reaches the process.

RICHI MACHINERY

Equipment Is Split by Process Duty Not by Marketing Label

The machinery package covers the whole route from receiving to bagging. Equipment quantities reflect parallel grinding, pelleting and extrusion duties across the 150,000 T/Y program, while the existing links below are retained for buyers comparing the main process sections.

The 10 T/H gas boiler is a shared utility for conditioning and extrusion. Its value is not simply steam quantity: pressure stability and condensate management affect pellet texture, extruder load and production repeatability. The plant therefore keeps boiler control separate from the individual machine settings on each product route.

RICHI MACHINERY

A Six-Story Process Tower Fits the 15,299 m² Site

The 15,299 m² property is large enough for a commercial feed mill, but the combination of raw-material warehousing, silos, boiler utilities, staff facilities and two aquafeed routes still required a vertical process building. The six-floor tower uses gravity between grinding, batching, mixing and downstream production wherever practical.

The retained layout separates production, storage and staff functions as follows:

• Main production building: 6 floors with a 1,497 m² footprint for grinding, mixing, pelleting, extrusion, drying and cooling.
• Raw material & finished product warehouse: 2 floors with a 2,448 m² footprint and separated inbound and finished-feed zones.
• Bulk storage silos: 182 m² footprint for corn, wheat and sorghum turnover.
• Unloading shed: 182 m² with covered receiving and local dust extraction.
• Boiler house: 120 m² and physically separated from the main production building.
• Office: 5 floors on a 360 m² footprint for management, procurement and laboratory records.
• Staff building: 5 floors on a 240 m² footprint supporting about 50 workers across three shifts.

The boiler and dust-heavy unloading functions are kept away from office air intakes, while finished-feed traffic is separated from bulk raw-material receiving. These details matter in a three-shift factory because traffic conflict and dust migration can become daily operating losses even when the machines themselves are correctly sized.

The east side of the warehouse retains approximately 800 m² of potential expansion space, but future capacity would still require a fresh review of steam, drying, cooling and power rather than simply adding another extruder.

RICHI MACHINERY

Two Routes Separate After Batching

The process shares receiving, cleaning, grinding and batching wherever product requirements allow, then separates into sinking-pellet and floating-feed routes. That keeps common equipment productive without forcing incompatible products through the same downstream machines.

Step 1: Intake and cleaning
Bulk grain enters covered receiving, then passes through conveying, pre-cleaning and magnetic protection before storage. Bagged meals and additives enter dedicated feeding points so they do not contaminate the grain route.

Step 2: Grinding
Coarser grain grinding supports general formulas, while ultra-fine grinding prepares the small particle distribution needed for shrimp and other fine aquafeeds. Screen selection and aspiration are adjusted by formula rather than fixed for the entire plant.

Step 3: Batching and mixing
Automatic weighing brings grains, protein meals, binders and micro-ingredients into the mixers in recipe sequence. Liquid addition is controlled separately so oil does not create wet pockets before dry ingredients are evenly distributed.
The liquid-addition point matters because energy-dense shrimp and fish formulas cannot rely on dry mixing alone.

Step 4: Conditioning and pelleting
The sinking route uses steam conditioning before the sinking fish feed machine. Die selection covers roughly 2–5 mm products, with formulation and conditioning adjusted for water stability rather than one universal setting.

Step 5: Extrusion and drying
The floating route uses a floating fish feed extruder machine followed by a mesh belt dryer. Extruded feed exits at high moisture, so staged drying brings it toward a stable storage level without hardening the surface too quickly.

Step 6: Cooling
Conditioned and dried products pass through matched cooling equipment so finished-feed temperature approaches ambient before coating, grading and storage. Cooling duty is sized for real hot-product bulk density rather than only nominal T/H.

Step 7: Fat coating
Fish oil or soybean oil is added after thermal processing where the formula requires it. Post-coating protects heat-sensitive fat addition and lets the plant raise energy density without overloading the mixer.

Step 8: Grading and bagging
Finished feed is screened by size; recoverable fines return to the appropriate process route. Saleable feed is packed mainly in lined 25–50 kg bags to limit moisture pickup during storage and distribution.

RICHI MACHINERY

Utilities Reflect Extrusion Drying and Three-Shift Operation

The first-month utility data are treated as plant-wide operating values for the full aquafeed factory, not as consumption for one machine:

The boiler averaged below its full rating during the tracked month, leaving operating headroom for formula and weather variation. Power demand is high because the plant combines ultra-fine grinding, multiple extrusion units, drying, cooling and continuous conveying; buyers comparing a shrimp feed mill in Myanmar with a conventional livestock-feed line should expect that difference.

RICHI MACHINERY

Dust Odor and Wastewater Were Treated as Separate Streams

The environmental design follows the actual emission source rather than applying one generic collector to the whole site. Dry dust comes from receiving, grinding and transfer; warm exhaust comes from extrusion and drying; boiler flue gas is handled separately; and cleaning water follows its own collection route.

The installed control measures include:

• Pulse bag filters at transfer, grinding and mixing points, with recoverable feed dust returned to the appropriate production stream.
• Bio-scrubbers on selected extrusion and dryer exhausts where odor and warm organic vapors need separate treatment.
• Alkali scrubber on the boiler exhaust as an additional flue-gas control stage.
• Three-stage settling for washdown water before compliant discharge or reuse according to site operating requirements.

Settled solids and spent treatment material are kept out of finished feed and handled through the plant’s waste-management route. This keeps environmental residues physically separate from feed ingredients and finished-product storage.

RICHI MACHINERY

Commissioning Exposed Two Different Bottlenecks

Startup work began in July 2024. The floating-feed route required the longer tuning period because buoyancy depends on the combined effect of formula starch, screw configuration, die pressure, cutter speed and dryer profile.

Two adjustments had the largest effect:

1. The extruder screw configuration and feed rate were rebalanced to avoid unstable expansion and internal voids.
2. The animal feed dryer temperature zones were recalibrated so moisture removal stayed even across the belt.

After adjustment, buoyancy became repeatable enough for production release. The acceptance focus was consistent float performance by batch, not a promotional maximum-time claim that could vary with formula and pellet diameter.

The sinking route using the animal feed pellet mill reached stable operation earlier, although cooler-discharge capacity still needed adjustment. Increasing the discharge-valve capacity removed that downstream restriction without changing the pellet mills themselves.

RICHI MACHINERY

Operator Training Was Divided by Process Risk

Two engineers remained on site after commissioning to train the three-shift team. Training was separated by responsibility so operators did not receive one generic machine manual for a plant containing grinding, pelleting, extrusion, drying and steam systems.

• Shift supervisors were trained on PLC recipes, steam flow, material routing and alarm response.
• Maintenance crew focused on lubrication, screen changes, wear inspection, die service and extruder screw maintenance.
• Quality control staff covered moisture, particle-size checks, pellet durability, water stability and batch-release records.

The practical goal was fast fault isolation. Spare-part codes, maintenance intervals and process limits were documented so the local team could distinguish a mechanical fault from a formula or moisture problem before stopping the whole factory. Local troubleshooting speed is part of three-shift plant availability.

That operating discipline is especially important in a 24-hour aquafeed factory because one missed shift affects both production volume and raw-material turnover.

RICHI MACHINERY

Qingdao to Thilawa for a Multi-Line Equipment Package

The main equipment moved from Qingdao Port to Thilawa Port near Yangon. Shipping was planned around the installation sequence so large pelleting, extrusion and drying components could be unloaded and positioned without blocking smaller conveyors and electrical packages.

High-cube containers carried most components, while oversize items used appropriate project-cargo packing. Moisture protection was important because the shipment and inland installation period overlapped with a humid coastal climate.

The customer managed local customs with its broker, while the machinery package included commercial invoices, packing lists and HS-code documentation required for clearance and inland delivery.

RICHI MACHINERY

US$4.5 Million Fixed Investment for the Completed Factory

The investment table separates the US$1.28 million FOB equipment package from the completed project cost. Civil works are unusually significant because the plant includes a six-story process building, storage, silos, steam distribution, electrical infrastructure and two downstream aquafeed routes. The fixed total is therefore about US$4.5 million rather than the equipment price shown alone.

RICHI MACHINERY

Three Commissioning Lessons Changed the Operating Standard

The first production campaign identified three points that now form part of the normal operating checklist:

• Cooler discharge must be sized for hot-product bulk density. A downstream valve that is adequate on paper can still restrict expanded or warm pellets.
• Magnetic protection belongs ahead of high-speed grinding. Screens and rotors should not be the first line of defense against stray metal.
• Moisture management needs its own operator limits. Dryer temperature is not a substitute for measuring incoming grain and post-extrusion moisture.

After these adjustments, the animal feed mill plant stabilized around 18–19 T/H during the early operating period. That performance is close to design capacity but still leaves the annual 150,000 T/Y target dependent on sustained three-shift availability and further operating optimization.

RICHI MACHINERY

Why a Large Aquafeed Plant Can Fit the Yangon Market

The commercial logic is strongest where farms need consistent floating and sinking feed close to the production region. Local manufacture shortens the finished-feed supply chain and gives the producer more control over freshness, formula changes and bag availability during periods when transport becomes difficult.

The plant should not be justified by one unsupported national growth forecast. Its stronger basis is the customer’s own 150,000 T/Y production program combined with three-shift operation and access to aquaculture customers that use different feed forms.

Ingredient flexibility also matters. The compound feed mill section can use multiple grains and protein meals, while the dedicated extrusion and sinking-feed routes allow the factory to turn those formulations into products for different aquatic species without rebuilding the front end.

RICHI MACHINERY

Start With the Product Split Before Choosing the Extruder

For a 20 T/H aqua feed mill plant in Myanmar, the first design question is not how many extruders or pellet mills to buy. It is how much annual tonnage belongs to floating feed, sinking feed and any non-aquatic products that may share the factory.

That split determines fine-grinding demand, steam load, dryer area, coating capacity, cooler size, bagging rate and the number of intermediate bins. Moisture range and working hours then determine how much practical capacity margin the factory needs.

A useful engineering package therefore begins with a mass balance and hourly route balance before the equipment list is finalized. That approach prevents one oversized machine from hiding a smaller downstream bottleneck.

Critical spare parts should follow the same route analysis: hammer-mill screens, pellet-mill wear parts, extruder screws, dryer sensors and conveying bearings do not carry the same failure risk or replacement interval.

If you are planning an animal feed production line with a major aquafeed component, send the annual output by product, pellet diameter, ingredient list, moisture range, shift schedule and available site dimensions. Those inputs are enough to determine whether the project needs separate floating and sinking routes or a simpler single-product configuration.