Prepared for lenders, CDCs, and federal agencies to SBA SOP 50 10 8, USDA RD Instruction 5001, and conventional underwriting standards. Fiduciary duty runs to the lender and the agency, never the borrower. More than 4,000 studies since 1998 covering $40.2 billion in evaluated project value.
Finfish operations — salmonids in raceways and net pens, tilapia and catfish in ponds and tanks, bass and specialty species for live and niche markets — are underwritten on the spread between feed cost and farm-gate price, multiplied by biomass the system can actually carry. The study validates carrying capacity against water flow, temperature regime, and oxygen budget; tests the growth schedule against the species' documented curves; and prices the harvest across the buyer set, since processor contract, live-haul, and direct channels carry materially different prices and risks.
Cohort modeling from stocking to harvest, FCR and mortality benchmarked to species norms, energy and labor built from the system design, and a disease-event stress case — because a single loss event is the category's defining downside and the credit must survive one. Coldwater versus warmwater economics are modeled to the site's actual thermal profile.
Every Wert-Berater financial model is fully linked with no hardcoded values, so any reviewer can stress any input. Deliverables comprise a complete narrative report and the linked Excel model, with ten-year pro forma, sensitivity analysis at ±5, 10, and 15 percent, interest-rate stress from +0.5 to +3.0 percent, and ratio analysis benchmarked against RMA and IBISWorld data.
SBA engagements are prepared to SOP 50 10 8, including its debt-service-coverage minimums of 1.15x operating and 1.00x global. USDA engagements follow RD Staff Instruction 5001 across the Business & Industry, Community Facilities, REAP, and Value-Added Producer Grant programs. Conventional engagements are built to the lender's stated coverage standard, typically 1.20x. Pond and farm-scale projects route naturally to USDA programs in eligible areas; SBA structures serve owner-operator processing and retail integrations; conventional credit governs larger consolidated operations.
Finfish work draws on the firm's production-agriculture and processing record, including dairy and protein engagements where the same cohort-throughput logic governs the analysis. Independence is non-negotiable: determinations follow the evidence and are not revised under pressure, and studies are built to pass lender, agency, and third-party review without exception items.
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