Every great farm starts with a single decision. For LarGro, that decision was made in 2014, when we purchased land in District Thatta, Sindh — with no idea it would one day become one of the country's most advanced tilapia farming and hatchery operations.
We didn't start with experts or imported technology. We started the way most great ventures do — by watching, learning, and trying. We visited nearby fish farms to observe conventional practices, and began farming immediately using local, traditional methods. With no formal guidance available, we turned to YouTube and Google, teaching ourselves the fundamentals of aquaculture one video and one article at a time.
In January 2016, everything changed direction. We attended a seminar on tilapia farming — and that was the moment LarGro found its true focus. We began studying tilapia farming seriously and started excavation work for our first proper ponds.
"We had no formal guidance available — so we turned to YouTube and Google, teaching ourselves the fundamentals one video at a time."
In April 2016, we ran our first serious tilapia trials using local seed and local feed. It didn't succeed the way we'd hoped. Instead of giving up, we looked outward. In 2017, we traveled to Thailand and Malaysia to study how established tilapia industries operated — and came back convinced that quality seed was the missing piece.
Between August 2017 and April 2019, we imported tilapia seed and feed from Thailand on three separate occasions, testing, comparing, and refining our approach with every batch. Our first full trial of imported seed and feed, harvested between December 2018 and February 2019, finally gave us the proof we needed:
| Pond | Area | Net yield | FCR |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pond 1 | 3 acres | 8,030 kg | 2.05 |
| Pond 2 | 3 acres | 7,962 kg | 1.89 |
| Pond 12 | 1.25 acres | 5,541 kg | 1.56 |
| NL-1 | 1.25 acres | 2,124 kg | 2.43 |
| NL-2 | 1.25 acres | 1,631 kg | 2.27 |
| NL-3 | 1.25 acres | 982 kg | 2.82 |
| NL-4 | 1.25 acres | 751 kg | 2.56 |
The results confirmed it: with the right seed, feed, and care, tilapia farming in Sindh could genuinely work — and work well.
Relying on imported seed was proving expensive and unsustainable long-term. So we made a bigger decision: build a hatchery of our own. We sought out the best expertise available — on 1 November 2019, LarGro signed a Memorandum of Agreement with the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT), Thailand, to help set up a proper tilapia hatchery.
Construction began in January 2020, and then came Covid-19. The project paused for nearly six months, but we pushed through. The hatchery was completed in June 2022, and by August 2022 it was producing monosex tilapia fry — both for local farmers and our own operations. Today it has the capacity to produce 100 million fry, with our first milestone target set at 30–40 million fry within the next 3–4 years.
LarGro currently produces 3,000–4,000 kg of tilapia per acre without aeration. Our next target is 7,000–8,000 kg per acre through aeration systems. Our broader mission is to help local farmers move from the traditional 300–500 kg per acre yield to 3,000–4,000 kg per acre, through knowledge-sharing and proper technique — which is why we built a 40–50 person conference and training room right at our farm, where we regularly host farmers and welcome university students learning aquaculture firsthand.
In September 2018, during a visit to China, we witnessed a technology that would reshape our vision for the future: the In-Pond Raceway System (IPRS). We began constructing our own IPRS in March 2019 and completed it in July 2020. The concept is simple but powerful — 20–25 tons of production from just 1.25 acres, in a fraction of the time conventional ponds require. Read more about our IPRS system →
Today, LarGro's tilapia reaches consumers through the Karachi Fish Market, as fresh fillets supplied to caterers, supermarkets, and online delivery services. We're working toward offering value-added tilapia products — including fish nuggets, kababs, kofta, samosas, wontons, and spring rolls — bringing tilapia to Pakistani tables in new and convenient ways.
From a single plot of land in Thatta to a hatchery producing millions of fry, from YouTube tutorials to a partnership with a Thai research institute — LarGro's journey has been one of persistence, learning, and continuous improvement. We're just getting started.
