Endorsed by the Department of Fisheries, Government of India

The story of Ocean Farm

A chef. An ocean. A promise to India.

Chef Sam spent twenty years cooking seafood in Portugal. He came home to fix what happens to India's harvest after it leaves the water.

Begin the story

Portugal

Twenty years in Portugal

Sourabh Arora, Chef Sam to the people he cooked with, spent twenty years in the kitchens of JW Marriott and Marriott hotels in Portugal.

Portugal takes its fish seriously. That is where he learned the trade.

Shrimp

Shrimp became his speciality

Over the years seafood became his speciality, and shrimp most of all. His card still says it: Crafting Shrimps, Creating Taste.

Any seafood cook will tell you most of the quality is decided before the fish reaches the kitchen. If it sat in the heat or froze slowly, no recipe can bring it back.

Back in India

At home, the harvest was losing its value

In India he kept seeing the same thing. A farmer harvests the pond, there is no cold storage nearby, so the catch goes to market that day. Every farmer around does the same, and the price drops.

Much of what reaches families has spent hours in the heat. And a lot of Indians still don't get enough protein.

The fix

So he started with the cold store

Ocean Farm freezes each harvest in −41 °C air, then holds it at −18 °C. Freezing that fast keeps the texture and the nutrients. The store holds 50 tonnes.

A farmer can now store the harvest and sell when the price is better, instead of on the day it comes out of the water.

The first step

This is the first step

The Department of Fisheries, Government of India, has endorsed Ocean Farm. It starts with one cold store and three products: fish, shrimp and chicken.

Sam's plan is to grow from here and, in time, sell Indian produce abroad under an Indian name. From India, for the world.

From an empty field in Karnal to a working cold store

Ocean Farm's first cold store is in Karnal, Haryana. These are the photos Sam took along the way.

  1. An empty, fenced field with the first bricks laid

    The plot, before anything

  2. Brick boundary walls going up

    Walls going up

  3. Workers fitting insulated panels

    Insulated panels, one by one

  4. The cold room with its insulated door

    The cold room door

  5. Cooling units fitted inside the cold room

    Cooling units inside

  6. The finished cold store under its shed roof

    Finished, and ready for the first harvest

  7. Painted Ocean Farm mural with fish, squid and shrimp

    And a mural, so nobody misses it

  8. Mural of Chef Sam's card painted on the boundary wall

    Sam's card, painted on the wall

Chef Sam in his chef's whites

A note from Sam

To the farmers and families we'll work with,

I cooked in Portugal for twenty years. A lot of nights after service I thought about home, and about how much good fish India grows and then wastes.

I've met farmers who work all season and then take whatever the market pays on one day. I've seen fish sold in the sun on bare floors. None of that has to happen.

Ocean Farm is how I want to fix my part of it: freeze the harvest properly, keep it clean, and pay the farmer fairly. If we get that right, the rest follows.

With respect,

Sam

Sourabh Arora, founder

What we've promised

Farmers
A cold store near the harvest, so you don't have to sell on day one.
Families
Fish, shrimp and chicken that were cleaned, frozen fast and kept cold.
India
Less of the harvest wasted, and Indian produce good enough to sell anywhere.

What happens to a fish at Ocean Farm

Ocean Farm is a blast-freezing and cold-storage business for fish, shrimp and chicken. We work with farmers, clean and pack the harvest, freeze it at −41 °C and keep it at −18 °C until it goes to homes, hotels and shops, and later to buyers abroad.

  1. Farm

    Harvest

    Fish and shrimp from the pond, chicken from the farm.

  2. 0 °C

    Ice

    Iced straight away, at the farm.

  3. Clean room

    Clean and pack

    Washed in potable water, graded, packed.

  4. −41 °C

    Blast freeze

    Frozen through in fast, very cold air.

  5. −18 °C

    Cold store

    Kept here until it's ordered.

  6. Frozen

    Delivery

    To homes, hotels and shops.

Why freezing speed matters

When fish freezes slowly, the ice crystals grow large and split the cells. When it thaws, the juice runs out and takes nutrients with it. Freezing fast keeps the crystals small. The two microscopes below show both, side by side.

Under the microscope: fish muscle cells

Ordinary slow freeze Freezing air≈ −10 °C
Core22.0°
Time (hours)0.0

About 6 hours in the critical zone

    Ocean Farm blast freeze Freezing air−41 °C
    Core22.0°
    Time (hours)0.0

    Through the critical zone in under an hour

      Core temperature while freezing Ordinary slow freezeOcean Farm blast freeze
      Critical zone, −1 to −5 °C: this is where ice crystals grow Hours

      Illustrative curves for a typical fish fillet. Real times depend on the size of the piece and the packing.

      Clean is the whole point

      India grows some of the best fish, shrimp and poultry anywhere. A lot of that goodness is lost after the harvest, mostly to heat and dirty handling. This is what we do differently.

      What often happensWhat we do
      Fish waits in the sun at the pond side and in the market.It's iced at the farm and kept cold from then on.
      It's washed and iced with water nobody has tested.We use potable water for washing and for ice.
      It's sorted on the floor and passed from hand to hand.It's handled with gloves in a clean room and never put on the floor.
      It thaws and refreezes on the way to market.It stays frozen from our plant until it's delivered.
      The processing room from the other end, with steel worktops on both sides
      Stainless steel tables in our processing room

      Eat the best. Be the best.

      Food that's kept clean and cold keeps its protein. That's why we're strict about it.

      Store the harvest. Sell when the price is right.

      Move the slider to see how waiting a few days can change the price. The numbers are an example, not a quote.

      Harvest-day price
      ₹0/kg
      Price on selling day
      ₹0/kg
      Extra for the farmer
      +₹0/kg

      Example prices, for explanation only.

      Ask about storing your harvest

      What we sell

      Three products to begin with, all cleaned, blast frozen and packed in our own plant. For prices and pack sizes, ask us.

      Fish

      Whole, steaks and fillets, from Indian fish farms.

      About 22 g protein per 100 g, cooked

      Shrimp

      Sam's speciality. Graded by size, with deveined options.

      About 24 g protein per 100 g, cooked

      Chicken

      Cleaned and cut for homes, restaurants and hotels.

      About 31 g protein per 100 g of cooked breast

      Protein figures are typical values, not lab tests of our products.

      Ask for prices
      Chef Sam

      Master

      CHEF SAM

      Sourabh Arora · Shrimp Specialist

      Crafting Shrimps, Creating Taste

      Talk to Sam's team

      Farmers who want storage, hotels and shops who want to buy, and anyone thinking of investing: call, message, or use the form.