One kilo of frozen shrimp, pond to reefer.

If you ship to the European Union (EU), the United States or Japan, your buyer may ask for carbon data.

Seafood is not a Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) good. EU buyers work out their own supply chain footprints, so the ask reaches you as carbon per kilogram of product.

Slide to follow the cold chain. See which part is yours and which part you buy in.

Plant only, gate to gate. Pond and freight are extra.

The number below is your own Scope 1 and 2, plant only, in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), for one month. It is an example.

• Power you buy (Scope 2)
• Generator diesel (Scope 1)
• Refrigerant gas (Scope 1)
• Bought in (Scope 3)

Scope 1 is fuel you burn and gas that leaks. Scope 2 is power you buy. Scope 3 is everything else you buy in. The example is one month at a plant that uses HFC (hydrofluorocarbon) refrigerant gas.

1. Pond: feed and aerators

Where a farmed shrimp starts. Bought in (Scope 3).

• Feed first. Kilograms of feed given divided by kilograms of shrimp harvested is the feed conversion ratio (FCR). Multiply it by the feed footprint from your feed mill.
• Then the aerators. Paddle wheels are rated in horsepower, and one horsepower is 0.746 kilowatts. Grid power is 0.675 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilowatt hour (kWh) for financial year (FY) 2025-26.
• A poor crop raises FCR. The feed line moves with farm management, not only the feed brand.

Example

• Harvest 8,000 kilograms, feed used 11,200 kilograms, so FCR is 1.4.
• Feed: 1.4 x 1.5 = 2.1 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per kilogram of shrimp. The 1.5 kilograms of CO2e per kilogram of feed is an example value.
• Aerators: 4.05 kWh per kilogram of shrimp x 0.675 = 2.73 kilograms of CO2.
• Together 4.83 kilograms of CO2e per kilogram of live shrimp, before seed, pumping and processing.

Feed factor, aerator rating and hours are example values. Use your mill and your farm records. This is a different basis from your plant, so it is not added to the total above.

2. Or the boat: diesel per tonne

For wild catch, boat fuel is the first line. Your own boats: Scope 1. Independent boats: Scope 3.

• Diesel burnt on the trip, divided by tonnes landed, times 2.68 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per litre.
• Your own vessels are Scope 1. Fish bought from independent boat owners is Scope 3, and their fuel records are your evidence.
• Bottom trawling uses far more fuel per tonne than gillnets or ring seines. A poor trip spreads the same fuel over fewer tonnes.

Example

• 6,000 litres x 2.68 / 12 tonnes = 1,340 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per tonne landed.

Per tonne landed is not per tonne of product. Divide by your processing yield, then add plant power and freight.

3. Ice: made here or bought

About two tonnes of ice ride with every tonne of fish. Made here: already in your power bill. Bought: Scope 3.

• Ice you make on site is already in your electricity bill.
• Ice bought from an outside ice factory is Scope 3, because that factory's power makes it.
• Flake ice cools fast and melts fast, so about two tonnes go with every tonne of fish.
• Ice making takes about 13 percent of power in a Veraval plant and about 18 percent in a Bhubaneswar plant.

Meter the ice plant on its own so you can compare it month to month.

4. Freezers and cold store

Grid power, the biggest block in most plants. Power you buy (Scope 2).

• Freezers, cold store, ice plant and processing hall run on grid power. That is Scope 2, taken from your power bills.
• In a Veraval plant the cold store takes about 40 percent of power and freezing about 30 percent.
• In Kochi (2010-11 study), compressors are 73 percent of connected load.

Example

• Electricity: 4,50,000 kilowatt hours (kWh) x 0.675 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kWh = 3,03,750 kilograms of CO2.

Where Kochi plants cut it

• Variable speed drives on four 5.5 kilowatt condenser water pumps took one Kochi audit report from 1,66,320 down to 1,20,120 kilowatt hours (kWh) a year. Payback was 1.16 years.
• The 46,200 kWh saved is 31.2 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) at 0.675 kilograms per kWh.

5. Power cuts: the generator

Small in most clusters, but in Kochi some units ran entirely on generator power. Diesel you burn (Scope 1).

• A diesel generator (DG set) holds cold stores at minus 18 degrees Celsius or below through outages. Its diesel is Scope 1, from your fuel bills.
• In Veraval, diesel was under 3 percent of energy. In Bhubaneswar, under 10 percent.

Example

• DG diesel: 10,000 litres x 2.68 = 26,800 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2).

6. Gas top-ups: the leak

The line that surprises people. Refrigerant leaks (Scope 1).

• Refrigerant leaks are Scope 1. You measure them as kilograms of gas charged when the plant is serviced.
• Using the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Sixth Assessment Report (AR6) values for its three gases, R-404A, a common freezer gas and a hydrofluorocarbon (HFC), works out at about 4,728 times carbon dioxide (CO2) over 100 years.
• Ammonia (R-717) plants add nothing here. Ammonia is not one of the gases the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol counts, so a leak is a safety issue, not a carbon one. HFC units in cold rooms or air conditioners still count.
• R-22, an older freezer gas, is reported separately, outside the Scope 1 total.

Example

• R-404A top-up (AR6 values): 50 kilograms x 4,728 = 2,36,400 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e).
• In an HFC plant this line can be as large as the power line.

7. Reefer container: the figure per kilo

Divide by what you packed. Your plant, gate to gate.

• A reefer is a refrigerated shipping container. Divide by net kilograms of frozen product packed, from your packing list and export invoice.
• Raw shrimp received is a different basis, because peeling removes weight. Headless block shrimp recovers 65 to 70 percent of raw weight, and peeled shrimp for Europe about 55 percent. Say which you used.
• Glaze water adds weight but no product.
• Your figure stops at the plant gate. Farm, hatchery, raw shrimp transport and ocean freight sit outside, so label it gate to gate. A buyer who wants cradle to gate needs the rest from supplier data.

Example

• 3,00,000 kilograms packed: 5,66,950 / 3,00,000 = 1.89 kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per kilogram.
• Without the leak: 3,30,550 / 3,00,000 = 1.10 kilograms of CO2e per kilogram.

Reefer container emissions for food exporters

Plants like yours

Pick the port you ship from. These are examples from clusters on record, not your plant.

Kochi: From a 2010-11 study

375 to 842 kilowatt hours (kWh) per tonne. Per tonne of product, a spread of more than two to one between units doing similar work.

• About 35 seafood processors, almost all on grid power.
• Compressors are 73 percent of connected load.
• Scope 2 is nearly the whole footprint. Generator diesel is Scope 1. Ammonia leaks are a safety issue, not a carbon one.
• At 0.675 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kWh, that is roughly 20,000 tonnes of CO2 a year (estimate), or 0.25 to 0.57 tonnes per tonne of product (estimate).

Veraval: From a 2016-17 energy profile

About 0.67 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per tonne processed (estimate). For 60 processing units, on the grid factor for financial year (FY) 2025-26. Leaks not included.

• About 10 of the 60 units export to the European Union.
• Electricity is 97 percent of the cluster's energy. Refrigeration takes about 80 percent of a plant's power.
• June to September is the monsoon fishing ban. Almost every unit runs only its cold store.

Bhubaneswar: From a 2015-16 energy profile

About 1,520 kilowatt hours (kWh) per tonne. Average across plants, from 1,100 in a large plant in season to 2,850 in a small one off season.

• 16 plants run all year, and more than 90 percent of output is shrimp.
• January to early April output falls as low as 25 percent of the yearly average, yet cold stores and ice machines keep running.
• Roughly 1.1 tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per tonne processed (estimate). Leaks not included. Four plants export to the European Union.

Kochi figures come from a 2010-11 study, Veraval from a 2016-17 energy profile and Bhubaneswar from a 2015-16 profile. Carbon figures use the grid factor for financial year (FY) 2025-26, 0.675 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilowatt hour (kWh).

What to keep in the drawer

A plant with twelve months of these beside its production log can answer a buyer in a day.

• Monthly power units from your bills
• Diesel invoices for the generator
• Refrigerant service records with kilograms added
• Tonnes packed each month, from the packing list

Senseible reads plant electricity bills and diesel generator invoices, and applies 0.675 kilograms of carbon dioxide (CO2) per kilowatt hour (kWh) for financial year (FY) 2025-26 and 2.68 kilograms of CO2 per litre of diesel. For refrigerant, give the gas name and the kilograms charged from the service report. Product weights come from your packing records.

Start with the gas you top up.

It is the line that surprises people. Upload one gas service report or bill and see it as carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e), then add the power and diesel.

Upload one service report or bill or See how a top-up becomes CO2e

Senseible builds the figure from your documents. It is not a third-party audit, and a buyer may still ask for one.