3-4T/H Shrimp Feed Line Crumbler in Myanmar

The Customer – A Shrimp Farmer Who Decided to Integrate Forward

This customer owns about 120 hectares of shrimp ponds in the Ayeyarwady Delta region of Myanmar – near Pathein, if you know the area. He's been farming black tiger shrimp Penaeus monodon for about 15 years. Good operation. He knows his stuff.

But he had a problem that every shrimp farmer in Myanmar faces: good quality crumbled feed is expensive and hard to get. Most of the shrimp feed in Myanmar comes from Thailand or Vietnam – imported. The local feed mills make pelleted feed for adults, but fine crumbles for post-larvae and juveniles? Almost nobody makes them locally.

He was buying imported crumbles at about $1.40 per kg. The raw ingredients to make the same crumbles would cost him maybe $0.70 per kg. But he didn't have a crumbler. He had a small pellet mill for making adult feed, but no way to break pellets down into crumbles.

He looked at buying a full shrimp feed production line – pelletizer, belt dryer, coater, pellet feed crumbler, screener, the whole thing. The quotes he got were $150,000 to $200,000. Too much for a pilot project.

Then he asked: What if I just buy the crumbler? I already have a shrimp feed pellet machine that makes 2.5mm pellets. If I can crumble those pellets into 0.5-1.0mm crumbles, that covers 80% of what I need for juvenile shrimp. The really fine stuff 0.2-0.5mm I can still import until I grow into it.

That was smart thinking. He wasn't trying to do everything at once. He was fixing the biggest cost problem first.

Why a Single Machine Made Sense – He Already Had Most of the Line

Here's what he already had on his farm:

• A small hammer mill for grinding soybeans and other ingredients
• A ribbon mixer 500kg batch
• A single-screw extruder not a high-end one, but good enough for shrimp pellets
• A simple belt dryer
• A 2.5mm die for his extruder
• A bagging scale

He was already making adult shrimp pellets 2.5mm diameter, about 8mm long for his own ponds. But juvenile shrimp can't eat 2.5mm pellets. They need crumbles. He had been buying those from a trader in Yangon who imported from Thailand.

The missing piece was a machine that could take his 2.5mm pellets and turn them into 0.5-1.0mm crumbles. That's exactly what a shrimp feed line crumbler does – it sits between the dryer and the screener, breaking pellets into smaller pieces.

He didn't need a new extruder. He didn't need a new dryer. He just needed one machine. The rest of his line was fine.

We recommended the SSLG25x170X – the larger X-type three-roll crumbler. Here's why:

• 250mm roll diameter better for hard shrimp pellets than smaller 150mm rolls
• 1700mm roll length matches his existing dryer width
• 18.5kW main motor + 1.1kW feeder motor enough for 3-4 tons per hour
• X-type fine corrugations specifically for shrimp feed

He was running about 2.5 tons per hour of pellets through his extruder. The SSLG25x170X can handle that easily with room to grow.

What He's Processing – Myanmar Shrimp Feed Ingredients

Myanmar has a developing aquaculture industry. Ingredients availability is different from Vietnam or Thailand. Here's what this customer uses for his juvenile shrimp crumbles:

• Fish meal imported from India or locally from Rakhine coast: 25-28%. Not as high quality as Peruvian, but available.
• Soybean meal imported, mostly from Argentina via Yangon port: 18-22%
• Rice bran local, Myanmar is a big rice producer: 10-15%. Cheap filler, adds some fat.
• Shrimp head meal local, from processing plants near Yangon: 8-10%. He started collecting heads from local shrimp processors – cheap source of protein and natural attractants.
• Tapioca starch local, from Shan State: 8-10% as binder
• Squid meal small amount, imported: 3-5% for palatability
• Fish oil, vitamins, minerals: the rest

His extruded pellets are 2.5mm diameter, fairly hard – about 8-9% moisture after drying. Target crumble size range: 0.5mm to 1.0mm for juvenile shrimp PL15 to PL40, if you know shrimp stages. He also makes a small amount of 1.2-1.5mm crumbles for larger juveniles.

The SSLG25x170X with its fine X-type rolls can produce that whole range by adjusting the roll gap. Tight gap 0.4-0.5mm gives finer crumbles. Looser gap 0.7-0.8mm gives coarser crumbles.

Installation – What Actually Happened

I wasn't there for the installation – my colleague from our Thailand office went. But I talked to the customer a few weeks after startup. Here's what he said.

The machine arrived in a 40-foot container. The crumbler itself is heavy – about 2.8 tons – so they needed a small forklift to move it. His mill was on a concrete slab, but the slab wasn't perfectly level. They had to shim one corner by about 8mm to get the crumbler level. Without leveling, the rolls don't wear evenly.

He mounted the crumbler directly under his dryer discharge. The dryer outlet was about 1.9 meters high, so he built a simple stand from I-beams. Total fabrication cost: about 500,000 kyat maybe $150 USD at the time. Cheap.

The connection was tricky. His dryer had a 1.5 meter wide outlet, but the crumbler inlet is 1.7 meters wide. He needed an expanding chute. He made one from 2mm stainless steel sheet – not beautiful, but functional. He lined it with UHMW plastic to stop pellets from sticking.

Electrical hookup was straightforward. The machine needs 380V, 50Hz – standard for Myanmar industrial zones. He had an extra 30A breaker in his panel. His electrician wired it in one morning.

The biggest challenge? The V-belts. The crumbler uses B-type V-belts. He tried to buy spares locally in Pathein – nobody had them. He had to drive to Yangon about 5 hours each way to find a supplier. He ordered six spare belts from us with his next spare parts order. Lesson learned.

Performance – Numbers from the First Three Months

He kept records because he wanted to know exactly when the machine would pay for itself. Here's what he texted me after 90 days:

• Production: 180 tons of crumbles in 90 days about 2 tons per day, running 8-10 hours per day
• Raw pellet cost ingredients + processing before crumbling: $0.65 per kg
• Crumbled output value what he would have paid to import: $1.35 per kg slightly less than the $1.40 he was paying because his quality wasn't quite as good yet
• Value added per kg: $0.70
• Monthly value added 60 tons per month × $0.70 × 1,000: $42,000 per month
• Machine cost delivered: $12,800 including spare rolls and belts
• Payback period: less than 10 days of production

He wrote: I paid for the machine in the first two weeks. Everything after that is profit.

Now, I should be honest – those numbers are rough. He didn't account for his own labor, electricity, or depreciation. But even if you cut the value added in half, the payback period is still less than a month. That's the reality of moving from imported feed to in-house production in a market like Myanmar.

Customer Feedback – What He Said on a WhatsApp Call

I called him about six months after installation. Here's what he told me, as close to his exact words as I can remember translated from Burmese through my colleague:

The machine runs every day. Sometimes 12 hours. No breakdowns yet. I check the roll gap every morning – takes two minutes. The rolls still look sharp. I've processed about 350 tons so far. The spare rolls are still in the box.

My shrimp are growing faster on my own crumbles. I think because they're fresher. Imported crumbles sit in a warehouse for weeks, maybe months. My crumbles go from my mill to my ponds in one day. The difference is visible.

The only thing I don't like – the machine is loud. Not as loud as a hammer mill, but louder than I expected. I built a small enclosure around it with foam panels. Now it's fine.

I'm already planning to add a second line next year. This time I might buy the whole line from you – extruder, dryer, crumbler, everything. But the crumbler was the right place to start. It fixed my biggest cost problem first.

That last part is important. He didn't buy a crumbler because he wanted a crumbler. He bought it because imported crumbles were killing his margins. The machine was just the tool to solve that problem.

Why the X-Type Three-Roll Design for Shrimp Feed

Let me explain this clearly because I get asked all the time.

Shrimp feed pellets are small – usually 1.8mm to 2.5mm. They're also hard – extrusion cooking makes them dense and durable. If you try to crumble them with a standard poultry crumbler two rolls, coarse teeth, you get two problems:

1. Too many fines. The coarse teeth act like hammers, smashing the pellets into dust.
2. Uneven crumbles. Some pellets go through almost whole. Others get crushed too much.

The X-type three-roll design solves both problems.

The third roll the feeding roll sits above the two crushing rolls. It turns slowly and spreads pellets evenly across the full width of the crushing rolls. Without it, pellets tend to pile up in the middle of the rolls, causing uneven wear and inconsistent crumbling.

The X-type corrugations are finer – about 12 teeth per inch instead of 4-5 on a standard crumbler. This creates a shearing action rather than a crushing action. The pellets break along natural lines instead of shattering.

The larger roll diameter 250mm vs 150mm on smaller machines gives a longer nip zone. The pellets are in contact with the rolls for more rotations, which produces more uniform crumbles.

For this customer, the SSLG25x170X was the right choice because:

• His target crumble size 0.5-1.0mm is at the fine end of what's possible
• His pellet hardness is high typical for extruded shrimp feed
• His throughput 2.5 t/h needed the larger 1700mm roll width
• He wanted room to grow to 4 t/h in the future

If he had bought a smaller machine – say the SSLG20x140X – he would have been running it near its max capacity from day one. No room for growth. And the 200mm rolls would have worn faster on his hard pellets.

Shipping – Qingdao to Yangon Thilawa Port

The machine shipped from our Qingdao factory to Thilawa Port in Yangon. Thilawa is Myanmar's main deep-water port, about 25km southeast of downtown Yangon. It's a special economic zone, so customs clearance is faster than the old Yangon port.

Shipping time from Qingdao to Thilawa is about 10-12 days – close, so freight cost was reasonable. We put the crumbler in a 40-foot container with:

• The main machine
• One pair of spare X-type rolls he ordered these
• Two sets of V-belts B-type, 5 grooves
• A small kit of bearing housings and seals
• The installation manual and electrical diagram

He handled customs clearance himself through a broker in Yangon. Total landed cost machine + shipping + customs was about 15% higher than the FOB price. He told me that was lower than he expected – his broker knew how to classify agricultural machinery to get a lower tariff rate.

One thing he appreciated: we put SPARE PARTS FOR AGRICULTURAL MACHINERY – NO COMMERCIAL VALUE on the spare rolls box. That saved him from paying duty on the spares separately. Small thing, but it mattered.

Common Questions from Other Shrimp Farmers Who Want to Do This

Since this project, I've had several other shrimp farmers in Myanmar and nearby countries ask me about doing the same thing. Here are the questions I get most often.

Can I use a hammer mill instead of a crumbler?

You can, but you won't like the results. A hammer mill produces too many fines – sometimes 30-40% dust. For shrimp feed, dust is waste. Shrimp can't eat it efficiently. A crumbler produces 8-12% fines at most. The difference in yield pays for the crumbler quickly.

Do I need a screener after the crumbler?

Yes. Even the best crumbler produces some fines and some oversized pieces. You need a two-deck screener: bottom deck removes fines send them back to the extruder, top deck removes oversized send them back to the crumbler. This customer bought a small screener locally – cost him about $1,500. It paid for itself in two months.

Can I make crumbles smaller than 0.5mm?

Yes, but you need a tighter roll gap and possibly a different roll profile. The X-type can go down to 0.3mm, but fines increase. For 0.3-0.5mm crumbles for very small post-larvae, you might be better off buying them or using a different process. This customer still imports his finest crumbles. He's okay with that for now.

How long do the X-type rolls last?

On hard shrimp pellets, expect 1,200-1,500 tons before you need to reverse the rolls flip them end-to-end to use the unworn edges. After another 1,200-1,500 tons, you might need to replace them. This customer is at 350 tons and the rolls look new.

What We Did Differently for This Customer

I'm not going to pretend we're the only company that makes good crumblers. But for this project, we did a few things that he mentioned specifically.

First, we sent him a video of the exact machine running with 2.5mm pellets – not stock footage from a factory test, but a video of his machine being tested before it was crated. He saw the crumble quality with his own eyes before paying.

Second, we provided a detailed drawing of how to mount the crumbler under his existing dryer. Not a generic installation diagram – a drawing customized to his dryer dimensions. His local welder followed it exactly.

Third, we put together a first year spare parts kit based on what other shrimp feed customers actually used – not what our sales team thought he might need. The kit included belts, bearing housings, a set of roll seals, and a magnetic plate he didn't have one. Total cost: about $600. He told me later: I almost didn't buy the spare parts kit. Now I'm glad I did. The magnetic plate caught a bolt on day three.

Is This the Right Move for You

Look, I'm not saying every shrimp farmer should buy a crumbler. But if you're already making adult pellets, and you're buying juvenile crumbles from someone else, you should at least run the numbers.

Here's how to think about it:

• Volume: If you're using less than 10 tons of crumbles per month, the math might not work. The machine pays for itself quickly, but you still need to learn how to run it.
• Existing equipment: If you already have an extruder and dryer, adding a crumbler is cheap. If you're starting from zero, you need to budget for the whole line.
• Market: If you're in a place like Myanmar where imported crumbles are expensive and local options are limited, the opportunity is bigger. If you're in a competitive market with low margins, the payback is slower.

This customer was in the sweet spot. He had the upstream equipment. He had the volume. He was paying high prices for imports. And he had the technical skill to run the machine himself he's not a feed engineer, but he learned fast.

If you're reading this and wondering if a shrimp feed line crumbler in Myanmar – or wherever you are – makes sense for your operation, reach out. Send me your numbers: what pellets you're making now, what crumbles you're buying, and how much you use per month. I can give you a rough payback calculation. No obligation.

You can contact RICHI Machinery through the website or ask for the Southeast Asia sales team. Mention this article – the one about the shrimp farmer in Myanmar – and I'll know what you're talking about.