Industry sources confirm – On May 13, 2026, inside Lerford's Jiangsu assembly hall, a WSJY‑60 fish feed extruder underwent its final pre‑shipment ritual: a full dry‑run test, followed by vacuum‑fumigated wooden crating. Weight? 355 kg. Footprint? Less than 1.7 m². It has since been bolted onto a container floor at Shanghai's Yangshan terminal, awaiting a 20‑day voyage to Dar es Salaam.
Here's what the datasheet won't tell you
The numbers: 120–150 kg/h output. 1–10 mm pellet diameter, stepless. 15 kW main drive. 400 W standalone cutter motor. 60 mm screw. >95% cooking degree. Dimensions 1.46×1.14×1.25 m. 355 kg.
But let's talk real‑world fit.
Why 120–150 kg/h? Because oversizing kills profitability.
Most Tanzanian fish farms operate on 5–20 mu (0.3–1.3 hectares). Their daily feed demand sits right in that 300–600 kg range – meaning the WSJY‑60 runs four to five hours, then shuts off. Compare that to a one‑ton‑per‑hour machine: running at 15% load burns the same standby power, overheats the screw, and shortens bearing life by a factor of three. I've seen it happen in Uganda. Don't do it.
The stepless die adjustment from 1 mm down to 0.8 mm (yes, it goes slightly below spec – common industry trick) lets you push out fry starter crumbles one hour and 6 mm floating grower pellets the next. A seasoned operator can swap the die plate and reconfigure the screw profile in under 25 minutes. No special tools. Just a dead‑blow hammer and a wrench set.
Cooking degree >95% – here's what that actually unlocks.
At 95% starch gelatinisation, anti‑nutritional factors like trypsin inhibitors in soybean meal are effectively neutralised. Field data from a parallel installation in Kenya's Kisumu region showed that self‑produced pellets from this machine improved tilapia daily weight gain by 18% and pushed FCR below 1.3. But here's the kicker most vendors skip: water stability. Properly cooked pellets hold together for over two hours in tropical tank conditions, which cuts faecal loss and ammonia spikes by nearly 30%. Your pond doesn't just grow fish faster; it requires fewer water changes.
The cutter and screw – where Chinese engineering quietly shines.
That 400 W independent cutting motor isn't a gimmick. When you get a slight feed surge (which happens often with humid local raw materials), a direct‑drive cutter would pulse and produce uneven lengths. The independent unit keeps spinning at constant torque. Result? Uniform pellets every time. The 60 mm screw is segmented – three replaceable sections. Local staff with two wrenches and a bit of training can swap a worn flight in 40 minutes. We've tested this in Vietnam's Mekong Delta. No foreign engineer needed.
What's actually in the crate besides the machine?
Alongside the extruder: a Swahili‑language pictorial manual (not translated by an app – reviewed by a Tanzanian feed miller), a starter pack of wear parts (screw tips, cutter shims, bearing seals, one complete die plate), and a pre‑configured remote diagnostic interface that works via basic satellite messaging. Plus a laminated QR code linking to step‑by‑step repair videos stored offline – because internet in rural Mwanza is spotty at best.
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One machine, one container, one quiet departure
According to Lerford's logistics manifest, the WSJY‑60 is scheduled to clear Dar es Salaam port around June 5, then head inland to an aquaculture cooperative on Lake Victoria's western shore. No ribbon‑cutting. No press conference. Just a silver‑grey unit being forklifted into a feed shed.
And when that screw starts turning for the first time – extruding warm, golden, properly floating pellets – what arrives isn't just hardware. It's a calibrated solution: capacity that matches actual demand, maintenance that doesn't require a plane ticket, and feed that finally lets a small farmer stop guessing.
A single good pellet gets a fish to harvest faster. A single well‑chosen machine gets an entire value chain moving.
