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.
Hatcheries sell biology's earliest stage — eggs, fry, fingerlings, oyster seed, clam spat — to grow-out farms, stocking programs, and restoration projects, and the demand analysis is a census of those buyers within shipping range. The study documents broodstock sourcing and genetics, validates larval-survival assumptions against the species' hatchery literature, and builds the revenue case from committed and pipeline orders, since seedstock is sold forward and the order book is the market study.
Production modeling at survival rates the literature supports rather than the optimum, seasonal cash-flow at the hatchery's actual production calendar, water-quality and biosecurity systems reviewed as the core technical assets, and customer-concentration analysis — a hatchery serving two grow-out farms carries both their credits.
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. Hatcheries serving rural aquaculture fit USDA frameworks naturally; stocking and conservation demand adds public-agency revenue with its own procurement rhythm; SBA structures serve integrated hatchery-to-grow-out operations.
Hatchery work applies the firm's standing nursery-to-production analysis used across agricultural engagements where seedstock economics gate the operation above them. 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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